
blogs


Always Covid and never Christmas?
What kind of Christmas are you looking forward to? This is the second one impacted by Covid and its restrictions,…

Assisted dying – far better help is available than most realise
Far better help is available for patients in great suffering and distress than many people realise.…

Love in the time of Covid – gospel unity on an astonishingly divisive issue of our time
Are you aware that there is a silent spiritual battle going on within our church families?
I have come…

U.S. surgeons successfully test pig kidney transplant in human patient
So ran the headline of an article in Reuters’ ‘Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals’ category late last…

Who’s the boss? Vaccinating our children
‘You do it all then – you’re the boss’, said the dad to his ten-year-old daughter, as they…

Vaccine passports – a 21st-century ‘apartheid’?
Vaccine passports are proof of COVID-19 vaccination status as a condition of participation in certain…

Has the RCP’s reluctance to issue guidance on fMRI scans for coma patients become indefensible?
In March 2020, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in the UK published national guidelines on the management…

‘I’m Going to Convert You’
Conversion Therapy Ban
'I’m going to convert you.' It has a paternalistic – perhaps even narcissistic…

Downright Discrimination – the issues in the Heidi Crowter case
On July 6th and 7th 2021, Heidi Crowter made history. She is the first woman with Down syndrome to take…

Capturing the language of (assisted) death
Those promoting the agenda that, in plain speaking, wants the UK to legalise doctors to be able to provide…

‘Dying with Dignity’ Bill defeated in Ireland
The Joint Committee on Justice in Ireland has put a halt to the Dying with Dignity Bill proposed by…
The Big IF – Lobbying world leaders is right but charity begins with changed hearts
45,000 people gathered in Hyde Park today to urge G8 leaders to act on world hunger (see also reports from BBC and Ekklesia). A colourful installation of thousands of plastic flowers (picture), the petals of which represented the millions of children who die each year as a result of malnutrition, was the focal point of […]
Screening for Down’s syndrome – the real costs
In 1992 it was predicted that no more than 60% of all women would take up antenatal screening for Down’s syndrome and, with more older mothers giving birth, an increase in the number of affected births was predicted. How wrong this prediction was. It underestimated the future power and effectiveness of new screening techniques. The […]
Ile płacimy za aborcje dzieci z downem (Screening for Down’s syndrome – the real costs. Polish language version)
Prognozy sprzed lat nie uwzględniły skut- ków coraz większej miarodajności badań przesiewowych. O ile słusznie przewidzia- no wzrost liczby matek w średnim wieku, o tyle już założenie, iż liczba dzieci narodzonych z zespołem Downa wzrośnie, okazało się błędne. Wysoko zaawansowana diagnostyka umożliwiają- ca już na bardzo wczesnym etapie rozpoznanie symptomów charakterystycznych dla zespołu Do- wna […]
The police and GMC should be investigating the London psychiatrist that Michael Irwin is protecting
The papers are full today of a report (initially carried by the Daily Mirror) about the first British man with dementia to have an assisted suicide at the Dignitas facility in Zurich, Switzerland. The BBC is now running the story which will give it even wider coverage but it has also been reported by the […]
Christians should prepare for further job discrimination following today’s European Court ruling
Two British Christians who refused to act contrary to conscience have lost their legal battle at the European court of human rights in a move that demonstrates that ‘gay rights’ trump ‘conscience rights’ when the two conflict. Gary McFarlane and Lillian Ladele (pictured) had their appeals to the Strasbourg court rejected in January and had sought to resolve the […]
Abortion law in Ireland under serious threat from new legislation
Ireland is one of the few developed countries in the world where abortion remains illegal under sections 58 and 59 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861. However this could change if proposed new legislation is passed through the Irish Parliament Despite the significance, and potential effect, of the proposed legislative changes under the Irish ‘Heads of […]
Dilemmas, difficulties and hope – reproductive health in developing countries
Despite my determination a few years ago not to be a GP with a Women’s Health interest that’s exactly what I’ve found that I love! Having exhausted the UK Diplomas and Letters of Competence and with a long-standing interest in working in developing nations, I wondered just how much difference a GP can make in […]
Lord Falconer is seeking to overturn the Hippocratic Oath and change 2,400 years of history
‘I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect.’ So reads the Hippocratic Oath, which until recently used to be taken by all graduating doctors. Hippocrates of Cos (c. 460 BC – c. 370 BC) was an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles (Classical Greece), and is considered […]
Time lapse imaging of embryos – exciting breakthrough or just eugenics by another name?
Various media outlets (including The Times (£), The Telegraph, BBC, The Independent and The Guardian) have published articles reporting on how fertility specialists from Nottingham have developed a radical technique that will ‘dramatically improve’ the chances of IVF couples having a baby. The original research appears in Reproductive BioMedicine Online. About one in eight couples have trouble having children through natural conception and […]
Embryonic stem cells from cloned human embryos – six reasons for caution
The newspapers are full today of the news that scientists in the US state of Oregon have produced embryonic stem cells (ESCs) using the same cloning technology (somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)) that created Dolly the sheep. The original paper was published in the scientific journal Cell (Reuters and Nature give helpful reviews). Shoukhrat Mitalipov and his colleagues took skin […]
Joy, sorrow and satisfaction – medical mission in Ecuador
My own personal journey to becoming a medical missionary began when I finished secondary school and went on a short-term mission team to Ecuador. While we ran a Bible club for slum children a five-year-old boy, Juan, came to our attention. He had a gangrenous finger due to a neglected wound and it had to […]
It’s exam time! Can smart drugs make you smarter at this testing time?
While a cup of strong coffee is probably the choice of drink for most people studying for exams, perhaps coupled with a healthy diet, some exercise and sleep, many students will be taking something stronger and, it’s claimed, more effective. So-called ‘brain steroids’ or ‘smart drugs’ can be purchased on campuses, or off the internet, for a few pounds. By improving concentration, […]