
blogs


Mother permitted to give birth to her dead daughter’s child
Following a Court of Appeal battle a 60-year-old woman has been granted permission to take her dead daughter's…

Weathering the Ebola storm
As of 10 June, for the first time in two and a half years, all three West African nations have been…

New parliamentary inquiry launched to review freedom of conscience in abortion
A new parliamentary inquiry into freedom of conscience over abortion has just been launched.
Commissioned…

BMA rejects attempt to push it neutral on assisted suicide by 2 to 1 majority
Yesterday the Annual Representative Meeting (ARM) of the British Medical Association (BMA) in Belfast…

The BMA should reject this latest attempt to push it neutral on assisted suicide and euthanasia
On 21 June, the Annual Representative Meeting (ARM) of the British Medical Association (BMA) will consider…

Healthcare apps: helpful or harmful?
From finding a carpark to counting our calories, apps now cover virtually every area of our lives, including…

Helping women when they need it most
In early May, statistics from a global study on abortion revealed shocking statistics showing that one…

Good news on three-parent embryos… or maybe not
According to media reports, it is now safe to produce three-parent embryos! We are well on the way to…

New three-parent embryo research leaves many questions unanswered
A new IVF-based technique ‘is likely to lead to normal pregnancies and reduce the risk that babies…

Brexit and bioethics
On 23 June 2016, Britons will make the most important political decision of a generation: we will determine…

Going to church is good for your health
Nurses generally live healthy lives. But a new study shows that going to church could dramatically improve…
‘Cohabitation Can Be Hazardous to Your Health’, says American College of Paediatricians
The American College of Paediatricians is a national medical association of licensed physicians and healthcare professionals who specialize in the care of infants, children, and adolescents. The mission of the College is to enable all children to reach their optimal physical and emotional health and well-being. They issued this press release on 23 March. With its position […]
Human dignity and the code
The best nursing care comes through creativity and innovation, adapting care to the needs of the individual patient, rather than cramming each person into a ‘cookie cutter care plan’. But there is more than a hint of nanny-state micromanagement in new nursing guidelines that came into effect this week. The new NMC Code came into […]
Time is not money: learning to value relationships
Life as a missionary doctor certainly has its unique challenges, and one of those is trying to fit into and understand different cultures. Today, I find myself in the strange situation of knowing where I will be every day during June and July, while I am visiting the UK, but not knowing what I will […]
Fast tracking of Lord Saatchi’s new medical treatments bill stopped in its tracks
Lord Saatchi has been campaigning for a new law since his wife, novelist Josephine Hart, died from a form of ovarian cancer in 2011. He introduced to the House of Lords a proposed new law, the Medical Innovation Bill, (or the ‘Saatchi Bill’ as it has become known) primarily to allow the responsible use of […]
Lord Carey is putting his faith in the wrong place: ‘three parent’ embryos will not end great suffering
Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey has decided to make public his views on the creation of three parent embryos. Or, more specifically, to make public his views on anyone who has the temerity to oppose their creation. These new, treatments will, he assures us, end great suffering and the scientists behind it are trustworthy, […]
Suicide – oh no, assisted suicide – oh yes!
On 19 January, Nick Clegg called for a ‘zero suicides’ target among people suffering from mental illnesses. Almost 4,700 people committed suicide in UK in 2013, at least 90% of whom were thought to be struggling with mental health issues, particularly depressive or substance abuse disorders. The results of a programme in Detroit US have […]
Egg donation for research: an urgent call for volunteers!
Tucked away in all the media coverage of the three parent embryo debate, and on the same day of the vote in Parliament, was a news article from a local North-East paper, the ChronicleLive with an urgent request: ‘Egg donors needed to help with pioneering Newcastle medical technique’ And a new advert for donors states: […]
It’s raining men: the cost of 34 million more males than females in China
Just as the UK debates the need for a new law to prevent abortion based on gender, the Chinese Government has announced its latest population statistics. In amongst the data is the remarkable admission by the Chinese health authorities that the gender imbalance among newborns is ‘the most serious and prolonged’ in the world. The […]
Three-parent embryos – five big questions for MPs to consider ahead of vote
Tomorrow MPs in the House of Commons will be asked to vote to make Britain the first country in the world to offer controversial ‘three-parent’ fertility treatments to families who want to avoid passing on mitochondrial diseases to their children. This is final crunch time. Last week forty scientists from 14 countries urged the British legislature to […]
The government’s new ‘prevent duty guidance’ – imposing political correctness on university groups
The Government’s Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill, currently being considered by the House of Lords, places a duty on specified authorities, including universities, to ‘have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism’. Who could possibly object to that, you might ask. But in a Britain where rising state intrusion and […]
Freedom of conscience in the new Nursing and Midwifery Council Code of Conduct
A new year seems a good time to launch a new set of guidelines, and the NMC have chosen this January to launch their extensively re-written ‘Code of Standards of conduct, performance and ethics for good nursing and midwifery practice’ (usually just know as ‘The Code’). While it has been published now, it does not […]
Disaster response: Malawi faces floods
Many people here daily live life on the edge, so it doesn’t take much to push it over into an emergency. As Malawi last week experienced its usual annual rainfall during just three days, we found ourselves experiencing a natural disaster. Early signs of the larger disaster came as three people came to our […]