
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…
The ‘Groningen protocol’ for euthanasia of disabled babies in the Netherlands
In an interview this morning on BBC Five Live (at 0705) on the Paul Lamb case (listen here) I was asked by the presenter Nicky Campbell about evidence for a slippery slope following the legalisation of euthanasia in other jurisdictions. In my answer I mentioned the steady escalation in numbers of cases in Belgium and the […]
Don’t be fooled by Lord Falconer’s ‘modest’ assisted suicide proposals
Lord Falconer has finally announced that his long awaited assisted suicide bill will be tabled in the House of Lords next week on Wednesday 15 May. It is then that we will finally see the full text of the bill which will then proceed to second reading (debate stage) sometime in June, or possibly in […]
Doctors should not be forced to provide emergency contraception
The Independent has run the story of a ‘Christian-run NHS GP surgery’ which has apparently ‘attracted criticism for posting a notice warning that some of its doctors refuse to prescribe the morning-after pill to patients on grounds of conscience’. The message on the door of The Links Medical Practice in Mottingham, south London advises patients that if ‘a consenting […]
Several leading bioethicists defend the practice of infanticide this week in leading medical journal
In February 2012 two bioethicists provoked international outrage with an article advocating infanticide. Writing in the Journal of Medical Ethics (JME), Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva argued in ‘After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?’, that foetuses and newborns ‘do not have the same moral status as actual persons’. They concluded that ‘after birth abortion (killing a newborn) […]
Marie Fleming loses Supreme Court appeal challenging ban on assisted suicide
A 59-year-old Irish woman today lost her Supreme Court challenge to the ban on assisted suicide. Marie Fleming (pictured) is a 59 year old former Irish lecturer who has multiple sclerosis and wanted her partner to be able to help her kill herself without risk of prosecution (See Irish Times and BBC Europe reports). She had argued the ban on assisted […]
What the UK needs to learn from the worldwide Church
Last week there was a meeting between David Cameron and leaders of major UK NGOs on the process to find the new set of development goals post 2015. Many issues were on the agenda, and it is a meeting which will have influence on the process, because Cameron is one of the triumvirate of national leaders that have […]
GMC and RCM must now move urgently to review their abortion guidance in light of Glasgow midwives court ruling
Two Roman Catholic midwives have today won a landmark legal battle to avoid taking any part in abortion procedures. Mary Doogan, 58, and Concepta Wood, 52, (pictured) lost a previous case against NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) when the court ruled that their human rights had not been violated as they were not directly […]
Losing trust – why immunisation programmes fail
What do South Wales, North Nigeria and Northwest Pakistan have in common? They all have outbreaks of serious viral infections which could easily have been prevented by vaccines which are known to be effective. So why are children not being immunised? There are many reasons why the outbreak of measles in Wales and the new cases of poliomyelitis […]
Savita Halappanavar – Medical misadventure verdict does not justify changing Ireland’s abortion law
The jury in the Savita Halappanavar inquest has returned a unanimous verdict of death by medical misadventure. Savita Halappanavar (pictured), 31, was an Indian woman who tragically died in Ireland from overwhelming infection after allegedly being denied an abortion. Her case has been seized upon by the pro-choice lobby as grounds for liberalising Ireland’s abortion law. Savita was 17 […]
Does abortion reduce mental health risks for women? The very latest research
Assessing the effect of abortion on women’s mental health is complex, controversial and findings are frequently conflicting. Yet it is essential to do so, as nearly 200,000 abortions are carried out in Britain each year, thus even minor effects on a few women will affect large numbers in total. Weighing into these controversies this month […]
Paul Lamb’s tragic personal circumstances must not blind us to the deadly consequences of his attempt to undermine the murder law
A 57 year-old man, who was almost entirely paralysed in a road accident 23 years ago, is now seeking permission for a doctor to give him a lethal injection to end his life. Paul Lamb, who up until the lifting on an anonymity order this week has been known only as ‘L’ (see previous reports here, here and here), […]
Doctor who killed seven new-born babies by cutting their spinal cords with scissors may face death penalty
The Daily Telegraph (see here and here) has this week run the story of a US abortionist who is facing a potential death sentence after being charged with the gruesome murders of seven babies and a mother. Dr Kermit Gosnell (pictured), who is on trial in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, allegedly ran a filthy and dangerous ‘abortion mill’ from his […]