
blogs


Presumed consent, abortion and Falconer Commission on menu at BMA annual meeting
The British Medical Association’s Annual Representative Meeting (ARM) takes place at the end of this…

Using organs from euthanasia victims now an established procedure in ‘brave new Belgium’
Recently I blogged about Jack Kevorkian, the American pathologist known by many as ‘Dr Death’ for…

Papageno and Werther effects – public policy lessons for the prevention of suicide
I recently blogged about the new German film ‘Goethe’, a study of the early life of the celebrated…

Kevorkian’s life and death is sober warning of the dangers of legalising assisted suicide
Jack Kevorkian, the American pathologist known by many as ‘Dr Death’ for his role in helping over…

Paying less for vaccines – marketing strategy or an answer to prayer?
The giant pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has announced it will be making its Rotarix…

BBC to show Dignitas death – further bias and will fuel more suicides
The BBC’s decision to screen a man's dying moments at the Dignitas suicide facility in a documentary…

Telegraph highlights our comments on End of Life Charter not addressing religious beliefs
On returning from a trip to Canada, for the Third International Symposium on preventing assisted suicide…

The Problem with Care – more questions raised by BBC Panorama
Another week, and another story about poor care standards – this time an exposé on the BBC’s…

Altering the Body: the rise and rise of cosmetic surgery
This week the 90 second daily 4thought.tv programme on ethical topics tackles cosmetic surgery, under…

New End of Life Patient Charter is a good start but does not go far enough
More than 8,000 GP surgeries in England will be asked to display a new patient charter on end of life…

Times newspaper unwisely joins campaign to legalise assisted suicide
The Times newspaper has today (Monday, 30 May) devoted two whole pages and an editorial to the pro-assisted…
Midwives are meant to save unborn lives, not destroy them
According to the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), which is meant to represent all midwives, the role and duty of midwives must now also include assisting in ending the lives of unborn babies. And, the RCM makes clear in a new statement, if you refuse you have limited right of appeal. It has recently come […]
The CEO of the Royal College of Midwives must step down over this abortion scandal
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has come under fire for backing the BPAS ‘We Trust Women’ Campaign, which advocates the decriminalisation of abortion up until birth. RCM CEO Cathy Warwick gave her backing to the controversial campaign back in February, when she said that the campaign had the College’s ‘full support’. This will surprise […]
New RCM abortion statement is a further assault on freedom of conscience
Fallout from the Glasgow Midwives case continues to roll out. This month the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) released (rather quietly) their new position statement on abortion. The case of Doogan & Wood highlighted an issue with the conscientious objection clause in the 1967 Abortion Act. Specifically this was around what constituted actually being involved […]
Halfway Through this Journey: Talking about dying
Benjamin Franklin is widely credited with the pithy aphorism ‘in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.’ After the recent leaks from the Panamanian tax firm Mossack Fonseca we have learnt that the super-rich may be exempt from the latter, but neither wealth nor virtue spares any of us […]
‘Dear Mr Hunt, listen to the real experts…’
It is not only junior doctors who are trying to get their voices heard by Jeremy Hunt. One young lady last week made an impassioned plea directly to the health minister, on an issue that is arguably more about life and death than is the case with employment contracts. Her speech has been watched thousands […]
Rise of the Healthcare Robots: Five Ethical Issues To Consider
Once considered the subject of our imagination, best left in the realm of science fiction, robots are now a growing technology that is rapidly changing our world. We have become accustomed to seeing them on our TV screens in cartoons such as The Jetsons (1962-1988) or in films such as Big Hero 6 (2014), Elysium […]
What’s in a name? Some interesting facts about the new Francis Crick Institute
With the recent news about the Francis Crick Institute and the HFEA’s decision to allow one of its scientists, Dr. Kathy Niakin, to conduct research into the controversial embryo gene editing technique Crispr-Cas 9, we thought it would be interesting to find out more about the organisation that is pioneering germline (inheritable) genetic engineering. What […]
My right to have non-politically correct views
Two years ago I posted a blog about the censuring of debate and free speech which is probably more relevant than ever. That blog had been prompted by an earlier incident at Cambridge where I had been on the receiving end of attacks on my freedom to speak. It was not at the level that […]
Disability and Abortion
On 2 February Students for Life (SFL) was pleased to welcome Philippa Taylor, head of public policy at Christian Medical Fellowship. Her subject was the relationship between disability and abortion, and due to SFL’s secular views, she spoke only from an ethical/legal perspective. Abortion became legal in the UK in 1967 with the passing of […]
International campaign launched asking UN to protect babies with disability from abortion
Disability rights groups have launched a campaign asking The United Nations and other organisations to protect babies with Down syndrome from being aborted. The #StopDiscriminatingDown campaign is being spearheaded by The Jerome Lejeune Foundation in France, USA and Spain and Downpride in the Netherlands and Canada. The campaign follows news that several countries have introduced, […]
Legal abortion until term?
UK abortion provider BPAS has launched a campaign to legalise abortion-on-demand, up-to-birth, for any reason. Parliament is considering debating the issue. For more information on this see http://www.righttolife.org.uk/comment-opinion/abortion-up-to-birth/ The following are my own personal reflections: My daughter was born at 27 weeks gestational age. She came unexpectedly early, weighed just 2lbs and looked very fragile. […]
‘God is in everything I do’
As Head of Nursing at the Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF), Steve Fouch ensures that nurses and midwives get the support they need to be witnesses for Christ where they work. His department does this in several ways. They set up local meetings to assess nurses’ needs and to see how CMF can help. ‘This is […]