
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…
New journal on ethics of human biotechnology offers free access to online content
In August I highlighted the launch of a new journal, The New Bioethics, which focuses specifically on the interface of technology and the human body. The first edition contained nine articles, two of which, the editorial by Trevor Stammers and Matt James, and a guest editorial by Aaron Parkhurst, are available free on line. Abstracts from the second edition are now available and well worth reading. […]
Two huge court victories thwart legalisation of euthanasia in Canada
This last week has seen two huge court victories in Canada for those seeking to protect vulnerable people from having their lives intentionally ended. In the first the British Colombia Court of Appeal overturned a lower court decision in the Carter case, and in the second the Supreme Court of Canada upheld an earlier decision […]
Life as a missionary doctor
When I imagined life as a missionary doctor I figured I would be prescribing medicines, treating the sick and dressing wounds. I suppose I thought I would be doing more or less what I did in the UK, but with fewer resources and more exotic diseases. And I do give out medicines and treat the […]
Psychological trauma after abortion for fetal disability – parents need to know the facts
The belief that parents and families will be damaged by having a disabled child, and that this damage can be limited through abortion, is almost unquestioned today. This has been a major assumption accepted by many participants in the current debate on abortion for anencephaly in Northern Ireland, on which I have recently written. But does […]
Defending the ‘indefensible’? Twenty reasons to think twice about aborting a baby with anencephaly
A woman who is carrying twin girls with a fatal foetal abnormality has appealed to the Northern Ireland Minister for Health Edwin Poots to allow her have an abortion in Northern Ireland. The woman, known as Laura, who is almost 22 weeks pregnant, said she was very recently informed that her babies have anencephaly and had no chance […]
DPP defers to doctors practising abortion on demand in failure to uphold the law
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer (pictured), said yesterday that he would not be prosecuting two doctors caught in a Telegraph sting who authorised abortions on grounds of sex selection. The decision that a prosecution would not be in the public interest had previously fuelled massive outrage but Starmer claimed that in reaching his […]
All you need to know about euthanasia and assisted suicide in Britain today
All you need to know about euthanasia and assisted suicide in Britain Care not Killing (CNK), which promotes good care and opposes euthanasia, has just updated its website to include more ready access to key campaign information. There is now a new ‘Live Issues’ page which gives up to date information on all the main […]
Is creating three-parent embryos as minimal as changing the batteries in a camera?
Last year, Sir Mark Walport, head of the Wellcome Trust claimed that the impact of manipulating someone’s mitochondrial DNA would be as minimal as ‘changing the batteries in a camera’. Is he right? Is there nothing substantial to worry about with this new technique, which could reduce the risk of children having potentially fatal illnesses […]
Feminists fight for female rights (except when that female is still in the womb)
Feminism. Defined in the Oxford dictionary as ‘The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.’ Explained in Wikipedia says as ‘… a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women….A feminist advocates or supports the rights and equality […]
World Sight Day – lots achieved, lots to be done
The WHO estimated in 2012 that there were 40 million blind people in the world (with vision so poor that they are greatly dependent on others for help with daily living) and another 246 million suffer from Visual Impairment. 90% of these blind or visually impaired people live in the developing world1. Worldwide, cataract is […]
Doctors cannot be trusted with a licence to dispense lethal drugs
A small minority of doctors in this country (a quarter of one per cent belong to Healthcare Professionals for Assisted Dying) think that medical practitioners should be licensed by the state to dispense lethal drugs to mentally competent, terminally ill adults who wish to kill themselves. This is a policy opposed by the British Medical […]
It’s common sense, but the best studies usually are
A new five year study shows for the first time that changes in diet, exercise, stress management and social support results can significantly slow ageing. Researchers followed 35 men with early-stage prostate cancer for a five year period and found that certain changes to lifestyle had a significant effect of lengthening their telomeres, the parts […]