
blogs


Increasing survival of extremely premature babies again raises questions about upper abortion limits
The increasing survival of extremely premature babies is again raising serious questions about the 24…

Activists’ attempt to legalise abortion on demand up until birth is both unnecessary and unwanted
A campaign by activists to legalise abortion on demand up until birth hots up again this month, with…

End of Life Issues. What can we expect in 2017?
Things have been quieter than usual on the end of life front in the UK since the overwhelming defeat…

Sex and Relationship Education: should it be compulsory in schools or not?
The Government has just announced major changes to Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) in all schools,…

Regulator’s proposal to remove pharmacists’ conscience rights is unethical, unnecessary and quite possibly illegal
Should pharmacists be forced to dispense drugs for what they consider to be unethical practices – like…

Surrogacy – good rulings from Europe put the UK out on a limb
The disentangling of the UK from the European Union will inevitably, over time, put us more and more…

The age-old question: Science and political interests in the debate over abortion
Political agendas hiding behind science are nothing new. A particularly famous episode occurred in the…

Global Health – challenges for the coming year
2016 may have got a bad press in some parts of the media, but step back from the Anglophone world and…

Beginning of Life issues in 2017: what will we be talking about this year?
2017 will be another busy and challenging year on beginning of life issues
Abortion
October 2017 marks…

Bullying and NHS Culture
It seems hard to credit that an organisation whose primary focus is the care of the sick, disabled and…

Despite the marketing, egg freezing is not all it’s cracked up to be
IVF has become an almost routine procedure since the birth of Louise Brown in 1978. So much so that women…
Abortionists try to unsettle peaceful vigil
Britain’s abortion industry is under pressure and industry leader BPAS (British Pregnancy Advisory Service) has been particularly under the spotlight recently, and not just for their aggressive marketing tactics aimed at increasing their ‘market share’ of the shrinking health budget. First there was pro-abortion MP Diane Abbott’s high profile resignation from a government committee on […]
Limited consent for presumed consent legislation
Controversial Welsh plans to introduce new legislation on organ donation have moved nearer by another small step. Following the Welsh Assembly public consultation on ‘presumed consent’ to organ donation on death (more on the terminology used later in this blog) at the beginning of this year, the Welsh Assembly has now just published a report summarising […]
Case of locked-in syndrome seeks to establish dangerous precedent
Legal action brought by a locked-in syndrome sufferer, who wants a doctor to be able to end his ‘intolerable’ life lawfully, can go ahead following a judge’s ruling today. The Ministry of Justice had previously argued that the case should be struck out on the grounds that it is a matter for parliament, rather than […]
‘After-birth Abortion’ – otherwise known as infanticide – is the logical consequence of abortion
A leading British medical journal this week has published an article calling for the introduction of infanticide for social and medical reasons. The article in the Journal of Medical Ethics, entitled ‘After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?’ states in its abstract: ‘After-birth abortion (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all cases where abortion […]
Catholic midwives, abortion and the cost of conscience
Two Roman Catholic midwives have lost a legal battle to avoid taking part in abortion procedures on grounds of conscientious objection. Midwifery sisters Mary Doogan, 57, and Concepta Wood, 51, (pictured) said being forced to supervise staff taking part in abortions violated their human rights. The women had sought to challenge NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde […]
Elderly care and the NHS reforms
A report today says compassion and dignity are as vital as academic and professional qualifications in providing care for the elderly. The point is, both are needed – without one we have care that does not always address the need to increase independence and safety, and without the other we treat people as problems and […]
Abortions for sex selection: just the tip of the iceberg
The Daily Telegraph has tonight named a third facility where staff were secretly filmed authorizing abortions on grounds of sex selection. The Calthorpe Clinic in Birmingham (pictured), one of Britain’s oldest abortion facilities, is now facing a police investigation after staff were caught falsifying paperwork and a doctor admitted that an abortion he was offering […]
Undercover investigation shows illegal sex-selection abortions
The Daily Telegraph has tonight published the results of an undercover investigation showing that women are being granted illegal abortions by doctors based on the sex of their unborn baby. Doctors at British clinics were secretly filmed agreeing to terminate babies purely because they were either male or female. Clinicians admitted they were prepared to […]
Ten reasons not to legalise same-sex marriage in Britain
Britain is coming under increasing pressure to legalise same-sex marriage and Prime Minister David Cameron is determined to drive it through. A consultation on same-sex marriage closed in Scotland in December 2011 and a new consultation is being launched next month in Westminster to consider how (not if!) legalisation should proceed in England and Wales. […]
Controversial proposals from the BMA on organ donation
A raft of proposals have been put forward this week by the BMA to increase the number of organs for transplant, including a controversial suggestion to keep dying patients alive solely to harvest their organs, a process known as ‘elective ventilation’. The BMA report admits that elective ventilation is ethically contentious. It involves starting ventilation, […]
Government blocks attempt to fetter DPP
Last night the House of Lords discussed assisted suicide. The one hour dinner debate, in which 30 peers spoke, was focused on the role of the Director of Public Prosecutions in cases of assisted suicide. The DPP’s current prosecution policy for assisted suicide was published in February 2010 following Debbie Purdy’s successful appeal to the […]
VIDEO: Global response to malaria under threat as deaths soar
It’s not been a good week to bury bad news – and for the world’s poor, this week has had some very disheartening news indeed. A report published in today’s Lancet has shown that the World Health Organisation’s previous estimates of deaths from malaria have been seriously underestimated. In 2010 the WHO estimated 650,000 deaths […]