
blogs


Lucy Letby- a deep grief
This is such a deeply disturbing case. One of the most horrifying scandals to ever hit the NHS. A neonatal…

Doctors on strike – reflections of a conflicted consultant
On 1 August 1983, my life changed forever. I started work in the NHS. I lost all that I had known of…

Complete societal capture on abortion
The sentencing of a woman for two years imprisonment for performing a home abortion with pills obtained…

Mitochondrial manipulated births: a muted reception
For a prospect anticipated for almost 20 years, the announcement in a Guardian exclusive of the successful…

When is a ‘synthetic’ embryo a real embryo?
Embryonic stem cell-derived embryos (ESCDEs) have been around for a long time.
Last year, an ESCDE,…

You wouldn’t do it to a dog! Current fetal pain relief in NHS abortions
This blog should perhaps carry one of those BBC-style warnings, ‘some viewers may find the following…

Moral flip-flopping over doctors and the death penalty
I have long argued that ethicists who advocate euthanasia while at the same time being opposed to capital…

‘Because you’re worth it?’ The BMA and the junior doctors’ strikes
Easter 2023 is likely to be remembered for a long time in the NHS. Straight after a four-day bank holiday…

‘Of Mice and Men’
The Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing in 2018 really hit the headlines when Prof He…

When is a baby not a baby?
Last week Panorama ran an ‘investigation’ into pregnancy advice centres which they claimed give misleading…

Neuro-silicon interfaces: a new mode of being?
The idea of humankind being merely machines has a long history, stretching back to Julien Offrey De La…
This baby is still you, just the ‘best of you’ – the quest for better babies
In one of the early scenes of the sci-fi film Gattaca, a couple decide they want to ensure their second child has the ‘best’ start in life. So they visit an IVF clinic to select the genetic profile of their baby. When the couple express some disquiet about the selection process the doctor encourages them, […]
The number of women having several repeat abortions is shockingly high, and increasing
One young woman, who had a first abortion at the age of age 18 and then another three by age 22, was interviewed on Radio 4 on Monday morning about how she felt having several abortions: ‘The first one, you don’t know what’s going to happen…you’re scared. Like, you’re anxious…but then once you’ve done that…it […]
Is the RCOG breaking the law by preventing pro-life doctors from receiving its degrees?
Last week I highlighted the fact that a faculty of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) is barring doctors with pro-life views from receiving its degrees and diplomas. The story has been picked up by the Telegraph today. Doctors and nurses who have a moral objection to prescribing those ‘contraceptives’ which can act […]
RCOG faculty bars prolife doctors from receiving its degrees and diplomas
Doctors and nurses who have a moral objection to prescribing ‘contraceptives’ which act by killing human embryos are to be barred from receiving diplomas in sexual and reproductive health even if they undertake the necessary training according to new guidelines. Under new rules issued by the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health (FSRH) earlier this […]
Social care crisis deepens
Today’s report from the IPPR think tank paints a worrying picture for British society. In the next three years, the report estimates, the number of elderly people needing to be cared for at home will exceed the number of adult children or other relatives able to care for them. There are about 1.2 million people […]
UK Ministers try to silence two million critics of destructive embryo research
The UK Government, along with a number of organisations and research institutions involved in funding or carrying out destructive embryo research in the UK, have not just been taken by surprise but flat footed by the outcome of a new EU citizens’ initiative. The UK likes to see itself at the forefront of world biomedical […]
At least 67 doctors have clearly broken the abortion law but not one has been prosecuted
The General Medical Council has admitted in a Freedom of Information release that 67 doctors are known to have illegally pre-signed abortion forms and yet not one has been referred to a public hearing by a Fitness to Practise Panel, not one has been referred to the police and not one has been struck off […]
When secularists start running leper colonies we should take their attack on Cameron seriously
An assortment of ‘liberal’ journalists, scientists and celebrities have today accused David Cameron of risking causing ‘alienation’ in society by saying Britain is a ‘Christian country’. The 50 signatories to a letter to the Daily Telegraph say that Britain is largely a ‘non-religious society’ and warn about the ‘negative consequences for politics and society’ that […]
When ideology drives science
Intellectual dishonesty in the ‘abortion/breast cancer’ and ‘change therapy’ debates In July 1949, the New England Journal of Medicine printed an article by Dr Leo Alexander titled ‘Medical Science under Dictatorship’. In it, he explains what happens to science when it ‘becomes subordinated to the guiding philosophy’ of a political ideology. ‘Irrespective of other ideologic […]
David Cameron is right about loving one’s neighbour but has he missed the whole point of Easter?
Tony Blair’s spin doctor Alistair Campbell famously said that the Labour government didn’t ‘do God’ but the Prime Minister’s Easter address to church leaders has him trending on twitter as #CameronJesus. Today he has called for Christians to be ‘unashamedly evangelical’. David Cameron’s pronouncements have sparked controversy and criticism from both sides of the political […]
New Down’s syndrome research: saving lives vs saving money
A wonderful video has recently been released to honour those with, or caring for, people with Down’s syndrome. It is only a few minutes long but has a powerful message. 15 young people with Down’s syndrome speak to a mother who is expecting a baby with Down’s syndrome. They say that it will difficult for […]
Fertility rites and wrongs: New complications with new ‘families’
A case concerning twin girls has come before the Court of Appeal that almost defies imagination in its complexity of relationships. If it weren’t a disturbing harbinger of things to come, it could almost be dismissed as a comedy of errors. The story starts in the 1990s with two lesbians beginning an ‘intimate relationship’. […]