
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…
Elderly care: do we care?
A report by Age UK on Monday suggests that despite claims by Government that they are increasing funding for elderly care, the level of demand has outstripped funding as more and more people are living longer but with increasing levels of dependency. The report suggests that in the last half decade the actual funding has […]
Diane Abbott MP resigns from abortion counselling consultation group
A shadow health minister has resigned from a cross-party group of MPs which had been set up to lay the framework for a public consultation on how counselling should be provided for pregnant women. Labour MP Diane Abbott has claimed that the government wants to make provision for groups other than abortion providers to offer counselling […]
Christian GP in appeal against home office for unjust sacking
The Daily Mail this weekend has run a long feature on Dr Hans-Christian Raabe, which is well worth reading. Dr Raabe, a Christian GP from Manchester, was sacked by the Home Office from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) last February for failing to declare that he had co-authored a paper in […]
Holocaust Memorial Day – 27 January 2012
Most when remembering the holocaust will think of six million Jews but apparently this was only the final chapter in the story. What ended in the 1940s in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Belsen and Treblinka had much more humble beginnings in the 1930s in nursing homes, geriatric hospitals and psychiatric institutions all over Germany. […]
The case of ‘Martin’ – grandstanding by lawyers and the BBC
Lawyers for a stroke victim who wants help to end his ‘intolerable’ life can continue to act on his behalf without fear of prosecution or disciplinary action after a High Court ruling today. They successfully urged two judges in London to grant them a declaration which will protect them and third parties, including doctors, during […]
Update on assisted suicide and euthanasia from Care Not Killing
Falconer Commission Lord Falconer’s Commission on Assisted Dying reported on 5 January 2012 predictably recommending a change in the law to recommend assisted suicide (and not euthanasia) for mentally competent adults with less than twelve months to live. CNK played a prominent role in discrediting the Commission with 40 media interviews. CNK has also created […]
Margo Macdonald dishes up the same confused euthanasia proposals again
Margo Macdonald today announced that she is going to try again to legalise assisted suicide and/or euthanasia (it’s not clear which) in Scotland, just over a year after her last spectacular failure. Ms MacDonald, Scotland’s only independent MSP, said in unveiling a new consultation on the issue, that she has ‘learned lessons’ from her previous […]
Eurozone crisis setting back global health advances
Today is the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Global Fund for HIV, TB and Malaria. This was an initiative promoted by then UN General Secretary Kofi Annan to put significant funding into fighting the three biggest communicable diseases afflicting the developing world. Sadly, it is a tenth anniversary with quite a shadow cast […]
Tony Nicklinson – there are limits to choice in a free society
As reported in the Guardian, Telegraph and Huffington Post, Tony Nicklinson, a 57 year old man paralysed from the neck down after suffering a stroke that left him with locked-in syndrome, today begins a high court battle to allow doctors to end his life. Today’s hearing is a ‘pre-trial review’. I have blogged on […]
Significance of Dignitas assisted suicide deaths greatly overhyped
An article in the Daily Telegraph this morning attempts to make news of the fact that figures from Dignitas, the Swiss assisted suicide organisation, show a slight rise in the number of Britons registered. 893 members from this country had registered with the controversial facility by the end of last year,up 14 per cent on […]
Ministers reconsider independent abortion counselling
When an amendment aimed at giving women with unplanned pregnancies access to independent counselling was lost by 118 votes to 368 last year, things looked grim. But, as reported in the Daily Telegraph today, the Government is now pressing ahead with changes which could see women considering abortion given this right. The original amendment, by […]
My 2012 New Year letter to Christian doctors and medical students
The British films ‘Iron Lady’ this year and ‘The King’s Speech’ last year have been widely acclaimed and have sparked much discussion and reflection on Britain’s history. But I wonder if like me you were encouraged particularly by the two Christmas speeches over the holiday period – the Prime Minister’s speech and the Queen’s speech. […]