
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…
Patients with dementia and psychiatric illnesses included as Dutch euthanasia cases rise steeply
According to Dutch media reports today, euthanasia deaths in the Netherlands in 2011 increased by 18% to 3,695. This follows increases of 13% in 2009 and 19% in 2010. In fact from 2006 to 2011 there has been a steady increase in numbers each year with successive annual deaths at 1923, 2120, 2331, 2636, 3136 […]
What do Ludwig van Beethoven, Justin Bieber and Tim Tebow have in common?
A professor in a college ethics class presented his students with a problem. He said, ‘A man has syphilis and his wife has tuberculosis. They have had four children: one has died, the other three have what is considered to be a terminal illness. The mother is pregnant. What do you recommend?’ After a spirited […]
Warning to UK – Oregon Health Plan steers patients towards suicide
Members of the pro-euthanasia movement frequently point to the US state of Oregon, which legalised assisted suicide in 1997, as a model which Britain should follow. Lord Falconer and Margo Macdonald MSP are two British politicians who have frequently sung the praises of Oregon which allows assisted suicide for mentally competent adults with less than […]
BBC article on ‘gay therapies’ is simplistic, misleading and ignores much of the available evidence
Should people with unwanted feelings of same-sex attraction seek professional help? And if so what kind of help and what expectations should they realistically have? BBC Religion and Ethics have today published an article on this extremely controversial subject titled ‘Ex-gay survivor’s tales of exorcism in middle England’. I was asked to submit a quote […]
Major split in LibCon Coalition over assisted suicide
The Liberal Democrat conference voted yesterday to back the legalisation of ‘medically assisted dying’, a euphemism for assisted suicide and euthanasia. The complex motion included an explanatory note which applauded the Dutch legal model, which a House of Lords enquiry in 2005 predicted would lead to 13,000 euthanasia deaths annually in Britain. The result was […]
Liberal Democrats back Dutch style legislation which would lead to 13,000 British euthanasia deaths annually
On Sunday 23 September the Liberal Democrat conference debated and passed a motion on ‘medically assisted dying’. Chris Davies MEP and Lorely Burt MP called on the Liberal Democrat Conference to ‘press for the introduction of a government bill on (medically assisted dying)’ and, ‘in the event of a Bill being introduced through Private Members’ […]
Abortion after rape – the issues and emotions involved are not as straightforward as most people presume
I was interested to see published this week a statement from the ‘Ad Hoc Committee of Women Pregnant by Sexual Assault (WPSA)’. This group was formed eight years ago to petition the US Congress to hold hearings on the issue of abortion in cases of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest. So far, however, this […]
Current law supports eugenic abortion for disabled people – our letter in today’s Daily Telegraph
I am one of nine joint signatories to a letter in the Daily Telegraph today arguing that the success of the Paralympics should trigger a rethink of Britain’s abortion laws to make it illegal to terminate a pregnancy solely on grounds that a child will be born disabled. We describe the practice of aborting foetuses […]
Three reasons why CMF opposes creating three parent embryos
The news is full of debates today about whether or not new research techniques should be used to create children who do not have mitochondrial disease. New research, known as mitochondria replacement, could enable women to avoid passing debilitating and sometimes fatal mitochondrial diseases on to their children by using a donor’s mitochondria to create […]
Are there limits to free speech in dissuading women from having abortions?
Should protestors be allowed outside abortion clinics? And if so should there be any limits on what they can say and do? To what extent should the right to freedom of speech trump the right to an abortion? These were some of the questions being considered at a debate at the Conway Hall, London last […]
The mystery of the thirteenth constellation of the zodiac and its connection to medicine
The zodiac is that band in the sky followed by the sun, moon and planets. Just 13 of the 88 named constellations cross the ecliptic, its midline. 13? But aren’t there just twelve constellations in the zodiac? Yes indeed – Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. So what’s […]
Most MPs oppose the legalisation of assisted suicide says new poll
More than seven out of ten MPs refuse to back calls to legalise assisted suicide, according to a new survey released today (See reports from Press Association, Telegraph and Conservative Home). The poll comes just a week after two newly appointed junior health ministers, Anna Soubry and Norman Lamb, suggested that assisted suicide should be […]