
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…
HPV vaccine – mothers influence daughters choices but deep questions remain
A mother’s attitude towards cervical cancer screening influences decisions to vaccinate daughters against the cancer claims this – not entirely surprising – headline in a BBC news report on Monday, which is based on new research in the European Journal of Cancer. The research found that uptake of HPV vaccination among girls aged 12-13 years […]
Faith matters post-2015
With 2015 looming ever closer, the process to find a set of mutually agreed global goals for development is well underway. British Prime Minister David Cameron is one of three heads of government charged to lead a high level process to agree the goals at the UN General Assembly level. Civil society around the world will feed […]
The Department of Health is grossly under-reporting the true number of abortions for Down’s syndrome
Some of the most common congenital abnormalities accounting for abortions in England and Wales are ‘trisomies’, in which there are three copies of one particular chromosome rather than two. The most common trisomies are Down’s syndrome (trisomy 21), Edwards’ syndrome (18) and Patau syndrome (13). But how many of each are aborted? Well it depends […]
Liverpool Care Pathway – nine points for the government to consider in its review
Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, yesterday hailed the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) for patients who are dying as ‘a fantastic step forward’ in the way hospitals support the terminally ill. I agree that the LCP is a useful clinical tool that has helped many thousands of people experience better care in the […]
Health professionals and organisations misusing LCP should be reported to regulators, says CQC
The Liverpool Care Pathway was developed at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the city’s Marie Curie hospice to relieve suffering in dying patients, setting out principles for their treatment in their final days and hours. But it has been dogged by controversy with claims that patients who were not imminently dying have been placed […]
Amour – an award winning film with a sting in the tail
Amour (literally, ‘Love’) is a 2012 French-language film written and directed by Michael Haneke which won the Palme d’Or (top prize) at the 2012 Cannes Flim Festival. It is now screening in Britain. The narrative focuses on an elderly couple, Anne and Georges, retired music teachers with a daughter living abroad. Anne suffers a turn, from which she recovers […]
The global burden of disease – let’s not forget the spiritual dimension
Yesterday saw the publication of a landmark, multicentre collaborative study on the global burden of disease. It suggests that while average life expectancies around the world have gone up – they have gone up more in the West than in the developing world, and worldwide they come with more years of poor health and disability. Richard […]
Ireland and abortion – an update on recent events and the current legislative predicament
The international spotlight is now on Ireland in the wake of the case of Savita Halappanavar who, it is alleged, died after being denied an abortion (the facts of the case are still subject to an investigation and are hotly disputed). Abortion remains illegal in Ireland under statute law but two court cases have established […]
Pro-euthanasia lobby gathers group of religious leaders to support its campaign
I see that Dignity in Dying (the former Voluntary Euthanasia Society), which campaigns for the legalisation of assisted suicide for mentally competent people with less than a year to live, has set up a new group with the innovative title ‘Interfaith Leaders for Dignity in Dying’. The arrival of the group was announced earlier this […]
‘Lies, damned lies and statistics’ from the Alan Guttmacher Institute
One of the principal techniques used by the pro-abortion lobby to advance their agenda of legalising abortion in developing world countries is to argue that ‘safe, legal abortion’ will decrease overall maternal mortality whilst not appreciably increasing the overall number of abortions. In order to make this case they obviously have to establish first that […]
The role of faith-based organisations in global health
‘Faith makes such an important contribution to development.’ So begins ‘Faith Partnership Principles’ a recent paper from DFID – our government’s Department for International Development. It is a wonderfully encouraging document, recognising the enormous contribution that faith groups make to healthcare in low income countries. The paper goes on to say; ‘Most people in developing […]
The Savita case in Ireland: media reporting was muddled and misleading
At the same time that the Leveson Inquiry has reported it is beginning to emerge that the media reporting on the death of Savita Halappanavar was both misleading and muddled, strongly suggesting a journalistic agenda more focused on undermining Irish abortion laws than on reporting accurately on a tragic death. It can hardly have escaped […]