
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…
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 […]