
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 Liverpool Care Pathway – consensus statement from 22 organisations
Twenty two leading healthcare organisations last month published a statement about the Liverpool Care Pathway to counter adverse publicity in the mainstream press. I have written extensively on this controversial end of life treatment protocol before and won’t rerun the arguments here except to say that this new statement is well overdue and hopefully will […]
Teenage pregnancies – three responses to three false presuppositions
A couple of years ago Peter Saunders wrote that current government sexual health strategies for tackling teenage pregnancies are primarily based on three false presuppositions: that contraception is safe, that youngsters will actually use it and that abstinence is impossible. I recently blogged that the cost of pursuing current sexual health strategies has been more […]
The stories behind the Nobel Prize winners
This year’s Nobel Prize winners for Medicine both come with interesting stories behind them, and very contrasting views on ethics. The British winner, Sir John Gurdon, discovered, against conventional understanding, that cell development is reversible. Gurdon was knighted in 1995, is a Fellow of the Royal Society, of Churchill College and has a Cambridge research […]
Huge opposition to assisted suicide in Massachusetts from doctors and disabled people in lead up to ballot
The US state of Massachusetts is to hold a referendum on the legalisation of assisted suicide next month at the time of the presidential election. On 6 November Massachusetts voters will have the opportunity to vote on Question 2, ‘Prescribing Medication to End Life.’ This is an important vote given the influence and prominence of […]
Most members of cabinet have previously voted for lowering the abortion limit to 20 weeks or below
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has come in for criticism today for saying that he believes the upper abortion limit should be lowered from 24 to 12 weeks. However he is not alone. Of the 16 Conservative MPs in Cabinet, 13 actually voted for a decrease in the abortion upper limit during the passage of the […]
Why Jeremy Hunt and 70 other MPs voted in 2008 to lower the upper abortion limit to 12 weeks
The front page of the Times this Saturday reports that Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, supports lowering the upper limit for abortion from 24 to 12 weeks (12 week baby size pictured). This was his position in 2008 when the issue was last put to the vote in Parliament. In all , on that occasion, […]
Top 10 tips: applying for specialty training (part 2)
Part 2 of Dr Sarah Maidment’s advice on applying for specialty training for junior doctors. Part 1 can be seen here. 6. Complete the application form carefully When application forms are released, you won’t have a great deal of time to complete them. You may be on night shifts, or annual leave. Think in advance […]
Five reasons why Maria Miller’s proposal to lower abortion limit to 20 weeks makes good sense
Maria Miller, the new minister for women and equalities, would like to see the upper abortion limit come down. Having voted in 2008 to reduce the legal limit for abortions from 24 weeks to 20 weeks, she has just confirmed in an interview for the Daily Telegraph that she would vote that way again ‘absolutely’. […]
Top 10 tips: applying for specialty training (part 1)
Over the next few weeks, FY2s will be making big decisions about career choices and applying for specialty training. Having changed specialties and been through the application process twice (first applying for Paediatrics and General Practice, then reapplying for General Practice the following year), I thought it might be helpful to share some thoughts and […]
Do Christians divorce at lower or higher rates than others?
It is widely assumed that Christians divorce at roughly the same rate as non-Christians. This ‘fact’ is generally quoted within the context of arguing that faith makes little real and practical difference to the lives of believers. Here is what Wikipedia says: ‘Secular and religious critics have accused many Christians of being hypocritical. For instance, […]
Trickle of British suicide cases to Dignitas continues as Swiss vote for status quo
Switzerland’s parliament voted against a bid to toughen controls on assisted suicide this week, rejecting concerns about foreigners travelling to the country to die. Members of the lower house of parliament voted against changing the code, arguing self-regulation by right-to-die organizations such as Exit and Dignitas worked and the liberal rules protected individual freedoms. The […]
Why does God allow suffering?
What causes suffering? Is just fate? Retribution? All in the mind? Random molecules? These are some of the explanations the world offers, but Christians cannot take refuge in them. We believe in a God who is omniscient (knows everything), omnipotent (can do anything) and benevolent (he cares). Herein lies the problem. If God knows everything, […]