
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…
Health Minister misleads public over foetal pain
The inimitable Cranmer has drawn attention to a letter from Health Minister Ann Milton which uncritically parrots the findings of a recent RCOG report claiming that foetuses cannot feel pain before 24 weeks, are unconscious in the womb and do not require pain relief when undergoing surgical procedures. This is apparently the official line that […]
Jesus’ resurrection – the evidence reviewed
‘Christianity stands or falls on the claim that Jesus Christ rose from the dead’: So claimed Ludwig Kennedy in a radio debate with Lord Rees-Mogg. He was right. The Apostle Paul put it even more bluntly: ‘If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith’. (1 Corinthians 15:14) The […]
The real reason why so few doctors are willing to do late abortions
The Guardian newspaper, as a symptom of its rising anxiety about a change of public opinion about abortion, has run on its front page an emotive story titled ‘Anti-abortion climate “will deter new generation of doctors”’. It quotes Dr Malcolm Griffiths, a consultant and clinical director in obstetrics and gynaecology at Luton and Dunstable hospital, […]
The role of the media in shaping the UK debate on ‘assisted dying’
Just over a year ago I was commissioned to write a review article about the role of the media in shaping the UK debate on ‘assisted dying’. The article was published in the September 2011 edition of Medical Law International and both the abstract and full text pdf are available free on line. The paper […]
It’s not just about the adults…children have feelings too
It has emerged over the weekend that an owner of a UK sperm bank may have biologically fathered up to 600 children. One of his biological children has suggested the number may even be as high as one thousand children! Bertold Wiesner ran a controversial sperm clinic with his wife Mary until he died in 1972. […]
Abortion and mental health: the ‘debate’ continues for psychiatrists (or does it?)
Anyone interested in understanding more about the effects of abortion on the mental health of women, and any psychiatrists reading this, will find a new online article by consultant psychiatrist, Dr Previn Thevathasan, of interest. As well as briefly reviewing a few of the main recent studies on mental health and abortion (those by Fergusson, […]
Egg donation mania – probing beneath the journalistic hype
There are two stories about egg donation in the papers this week. First is the HFEA’s drive to recruit sperm and egg donors. Apparently it is bringing together a National Donation Strategy Group to look at how to ‘raise awareness’. The BBC gives an advertorial gloss to the story but the Daily Mail tells […]
Pro-lifers come in every age, gender, political persuasion, colour and faith
It is a well-known tactic for the pro-abortion movement to stereotype those who are pro-life. Most commonly, anyone who is pro-life is assumed to be religious and anti-feminist. This is a stereotype that needs to be regularly challenged. It is important to hear pro-life defences from all sides. In fact, sometimes it can be beneficial […]
Overstretched?
As a general surgical registrar I was once helping my consultant remove a giant spleen when the patient began ‘hosing’ from an invisible source. After a frenzy of clamping, cutting and ligating, things stabilised and we were able to proceed at a more leisurely pace. ‘It’s good to see the boss sweat, isn’t it?’ he […]
Triumph over adversity: Why can’t we have more media stories like this?
There was a brilliant piece in the Independent yesterday, about a British DJ with locked-in syndrome, which deserves far wider circulation. ‘Locked in, but still lost in music: UK’s bravest DJ’ tells the story of Bram Harrison, 34, who suffered brain damage two weeks before his 21st birthday after falling head-first off his bicycle. He […]
CNK welcomes MPs endorsement of palliative care
Care Not Killing has today welcomed MPs’ decision to encourage further development of specialist palliative care and hospice provision and their endorsement of the current law on assisted suicide. The House of Commons debate saw MPs welcoming the DPP’s policy for prosecutors in respect of cases of encouraging or assisting suicide published in 2010 and […]
Shroud of secrecy surrounds assisted suicide in Oregon
I was doing an interview on BBC Radio Wales this am on the Ottaway debate when a spokesman for Dignity in Dying (formerly the Voluntary Euthanasia Society) was again singing the praises of the law allowing assisted suicide in the US state of Oregon. The ‘Death with Dignity Act’ was passed there in 1997. Back […]