
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…
New genetic tests and difficult questions facing expectant parents
A front page article in the Daily Telegraph today describes how researchers have been able to map in great detail the genetic code of an unborn baby at 18 weeks gestation. Taking a blood sample from the mother and a swab of saliva from the father the researchers were able to scan the fetus’ genome […]
Abortion and euthanasia dominate ethics agenda at BMA annual meeting
Abortion and euthanasia are to be debated at a major BMA meeting later this month. The British Medical Association (BMA) holds its annual representative meeting, where it sets policy for the next year, in Bournemouth in the last week of June. An almost unprecedented number of motions on abortion and euthanasia are listed on the […]
‘Personal Beliefs and Medical Practice’ – guide to responding to the GMC consultation
The General Medical Council (GMC) is currently consulting on a range of new guidance to doctors. Overall there are no less than nine separate documents up for discussion. The most contentious and controversial of these is ‘Personal Beliefs and Medical Practice’ (PBMP), which deals with both faith-related discussions within a medical consultation and also conscientious […]
Pro-euthanasia activists gear up for fresh assault on Parliament
The next six weeks are shaping up to be very busy on the euthanasia front as pro-euthanasia activists gear up for a new assault on the media, the courts, the medical profession and parliament. On 19-22 June three Judges in the High Court will hear the joined cases of two men with conditions resembling locked-in […]
Are our genes us?
‘My father’s genetic influence has always been very much a part of who I am. It has shaped the physical way I look; influenced the way I view the world; affected the way I address problem-solving and coloured the way I assess what is important to me. In short it has defined what is essentially, […]
Miracles in Madagascar
CMF member Dr Victoria Parsonson spent two weeks last Summer at the Developing Health Course – run by CMF’s International Ministries department. A few thousand miles away and one year later, the skills she picked up have proven to be more than valuable. Victoria has been sending us short updates over the last few months […]
There are few things more horrifying than the slaughter of innocent children
BBC Radio Four led on the Syrian massacre this morning describing it in graphic terms as the ‘deliberate mass killing of children’ who ’were murdered one by one’. The story was also one of the top three on the BBC website earlier today along with the account of six children dying in a house fire […]
What’s wrong with the General Medical Council’s draft guidance on ‘Personal Beliefs and Medical Practice’?
The General Medical Council (GMC) is currently consulting on a range of new guidance to doctors. Overall there are no less than nine separate documents up for discussion. The most contentious and controversial of these is ‘Personal Beliefs and Medical Practice’ (PBMP), which deals with issues around faith discussions within a medical consultation and conscientious objection. […]
Faith, health & the World Health Organisation
The World Health Assembly in Geneva comes to an end today, after a relatively uneventful few days. The WHA is the strategy setting body for the World Health Organisation, and so its decisions affect the global health priorities of the world for the coming years. At this year’s Assembly there was a major new push […]
Abortion: ‘A caring service’
A BBC 5 radio programme has broadcast live from an abortion clinic, describing what happens to women when they go to a clinic and interviewing two women who have recently had an abortion, as well as the staff there. The whole abortion procedure is dressed up with a pleasant cloak of respectability. The ‘treatment room’ […]
Of course, nursing needs ‘compassion’
New nurses should be judged on their compassion not just their skills, according to Sir Keith Pearson, chairman of the NHS Confederation. He’s been addressing the Royal College of Nursing’s (RCN) annual conference in Harrogate, and is one of the authors of a critical report into standards of care for older people and is expected to call for big […]
Assisted suicide deaths increase by 40% in one year in Washington State
The number of Washington state residents who died of physician-assisted suicide rose to 70 in 2011, up from 51 in 2010 and 36 in 2009, when the state’s Death With Dignity Act took effect. The Washington State Dept. of Health reported in May that 103 patients requested and received lethal doses of medications from 80 […]