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…
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 […]