
blogs


Doctors who won’t prescribe contraception to unmarried women or provide sex-change operations risk being struck off, says GMC
Doctors who refuse to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women or refuse to provide sex-change operations…

The GMC needs to explain why it is forcing doctors to provide sex change operations
The Mail on Sunday has today quoted my blog in a story titled ‘Doctors “forced to carry out sex-change…

Huge increase in assisted suicide cases sounds strong warning to Britain
There has been a massive increase in cases of assisted suicide in both Oregon and Switzerland over…

Health Minister misleads public over foetal pain
The inimitable Cranmer has drawn attention to a letter from Health Minister Ann Milton which uncritically…

Jesus’ resurrection – the evidence reviewed
'Christianity stands or falls on the claim that Jesus Christ rose from the dead': So claimed Ludwig…

The real reason why so few doctors are willing to do late abortions
The Guardian newspaper, as a symptom of its rising anxiety about a change of public opinion about abortion,…

The role of the media in shaping the UK debate on ‘assisted dying’
Just over a year ago I was commissioned to write a review article about the role of the media in shaping…

It’s not just about the adults…children have feelings too
It has emerged over the weekend that an owner of a UK sperm bank may have biologically fathered up…

Abortion and mental health: the ‘debate’ continues for psychiatrists (or does it?)
Anyone interested in understanding more about the effects of abortion on the mental health of women,…

Egg donation mania – probing beneath the journalistic hype
There are two stories about egg donation in the papers this week.
First is the HFEA’s drive…

Pro-lifers come in every age, gender, political persuasion, colour and faith
It is a well-known tactic for the pro-abortion movement to stereotype those who are pro-life. Most…
‘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 […]