blogs

Putting faith in global healthcare
I have long argued on this blog that there needs to be a greater engagement with faith based…

The BMA: A trade union with integrity?
Can the British Medical Association (BMA) be trusted to ‘maintain the honour and interests of the medical…

Abortion and preterm births: what women need to know but are not told
Prematurity - a birth prior to 37 weeks gestational age – has recently been described as: ‘the…

Candour in the NHS: Speaking the truth in love?
We would all want a good degree of honesty from anyone caring for us or treating us for a medical condition. …

Nurses caught up in immigration battle
The annual congress of the Royal College of Nursing opened on Sunday, and it began with a warning. …

Morning-after pill is now available to all girls UNDER the age of consent
News that the morning-after pill, ellaOne (which can be effective up to five days after sex), is now…

Elisabeth Elliot enters ‘the gates of splendor’
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” ― Jim…

How safe is the school cancer vaccination for young girls?
New reports (including on the front page of the Independent) are adding to the evolving story…

The new ethical frontier: DIY eugenics
The single most controversial development in biology in 2015 is a relatively cheap, easily manipulated…

Scottish Assisted Suicide Bill gets short shrift from MSPs
Patrick Harvie’s Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill has been defeated today in a free vote by 82 votes…

Thirteen ‘solutions’ to mitochondrial disease assessed
Mitochondrial disorders are passed on through a mother’s mitochondrial DNA. They are progressive…
Rally for better palliative care & against assisted suicide & euthanasia – 3 July
Dignity in Dying, the former Voluntary Euthanasia Society, are planning a mass lobby of parliament on Wednesday 4 July as part of their plan to soften up MPs prior to a new attempt to change the law. So Care Not Killing have planned a lobby the day before aimed at promoting better palliative care and […]
Why does it now take stories like this to prick our consciences on abortion?
Few people in Britain now raise an eyebrow over the issue of abortion and I was struck by two casual references to it this week in relation to euthanasia. BMJ Editor, Fiona Godlee, in her controversial article calling for the BMA and other medical bodies to go neutral on ‘assisted dying’ said that doctors were […]
Presumed consent could become law in Wales by 2015
Controversial plans to introduce new legislation on organ donation in Wales have taken a big step forward. This week the Welsh Assembly published a draft bill setting out a legal framework to adopt a system of ‘presumed consent’ for organ donation on death. If approved, Wales plans to bring this new law into effect in […]
Most people with locked-in syndrome do not wish to die
Tony Nicklinson is 58 and paralysed from the neck down after suffering a stroke in 2005. He is seeking legal permission for a doctor actively to end his life. A Channel 4 Dispatches programme tonight,’Let our dad die’, put Tony’s case with powerful emotion but it did not tell us that most people with locked-in […]
Locked-in syndrome case seeks to establish dangerous precedent
A case of ‘locked-in syndrome’ that is appearing before the courts goes even beyond assisted suicide and seeks to introduce euthanasia through the back door. Tony Nicklinson is 58 and paralysed from the neck down after suffering a stroke in 2005. He is seeking legal permission for a doctor actively to end his life. The […]
How many women really died from abortions prior to the Abortion Act?
A common argument from the pro-choice lobby is that legalising abortion in 1968 saved thousands of women who would have otherwise died from back-street abortions. Before 1968, it is contended, women with unwanted pregnancies who did not want to have their babies had no choice but to seek the help of amateur ‘back-street’ abortionists who […]
Why is the BMJ editor making a case for the BMA neutrality on ‘assisted dying’?
The British Medical Journal this week published three articles aimed at neutralising medical opposition to euthanasia. There was nothing surprising about this. The BMJ’s record of editorial bias on euthanasia and assisted suicide has been noted before and the deputy editor Tony Delamothe, who has previously written passionately on the subject is a named supporter […]
Wise and courageous call in continuing treatment of anorexia patient
A High Court judge ruled yesterday that it is in the best interests of a woman who suffers from ‘extremely severe’ anorexia to be fed against her wishes. Mr Justice Peter Jackson found that the 32-year-old former medical student, who has other chronic health conditions, ‘lacked capacity’ to make a decision about life-sustaining treatment (full […]
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day – 15 June
Older people are today being warned not to fall prey to bogus retail and investment schemes, after 78 rogue companies raking in more than £28 million from people were shut down in the last three years alone. The companies scammed almost 2,000 investors between them and the oldest victim was aged 92, according to the […]
British Medical Journal adopts campaigning stance on euthanasia
The British Medical Journal this week contains three articles aimed at neutralising medical opposition to euthanasia. The BMJ, which remains editorially independent from the British Medical Association, but is sent to all members, has a long track record of backing liberal causes, amongst them the legalisation of assisted suicide and euthanasia. A comment piece from Ray […]
Three parent embryos for mitochondrial disease – more media hype than real hope
The BBC reports this morning that a controversial fertility treatment which creates embryos from two women and one man to prevent life-threatening disorders is ethical. Children born through ‘three-person IVF’ would contain some genetic material from three people. The UK’s Nuffield Council on Bioethics has said the technique could free children from ‘very severe and […]
GMC plans to hold secret proceedings against Christian doctor for sharing his beliefs
According to a new report from Christian Concern, the General Medical Council (GMC) has today decided to continue disciplinary proceedings against a Christian GP, despite the fact that the patient who made the complaint has refused for two years to give evidence face to face. The BBC has also reported on the case. Dr Richard […]