
blogs


Brilliant Resources to help Christians engage with the General Election on 8 June
On 8 June the UK goes to the polls for the general election. Whoever assumes power will have a profound…

Exposing the dark side of egg ‘donation’: the headlines this week should be just the start
At last! The media has finally picked up on the ethical and exploitative mess that is egg ‘donation’.
I…

New study threatens midwives’ freedom of conscience on abortion
In the latest bid to circumvent the increasing number of younger doctors being unwilling to perform…

The importance and credibility of Jesus’ resurrection
Nearly one in four ‘Christians’ do not believe in the story of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead,…

Egg freezing is not all it’s cracked up to be
A Daily Telegraph article recently asked: ‘Motherhood on ice: has the egg-freezing generation of working…

‘Wrongful Births’: The NHS spends millions in compensation… for babies being born
A recent response by the Government to a Parliamentary question on so-called ‘wrongful birth’ cases…

Organ donation- how can we increase numbers without compromising our ethics?
We are facing an organ donation crisis. The need for organ transplants is currently outstripping the…

Time for new partnerships: the added value of Christian organisations in preventative health
Your health is your true wealth, or so the saying goes. The relationship between health and wealth is…

My Feral Heart: finally, a positive portrayal of Down’s syndrome
“We're not so different, you and me” is the theme of My Feral Heart, a poignant British independent…

Lord Shinkwin’s Abortion (Disability Equality) Bill
In May 2016, Lord Shinkwin, brought his Abortion (Disability Equality) Bill to the House of Lords.
Lord…

Diana Johnson’s radical abortion bill narrowly passes first hurdle but is unlikely to become law
You can listen to my Premier Radio interview on this bill here.
Today, Monday 13 March 2017, Diana…
Plan to sell morning-after pill to teenagers online this Christmas will lead to more sexually transmitted disease
A British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) campaign, launched today, encourages women to stockpile emergency contraceptive pills over the Christmas period. According to the Daily Telegrapha poster for the scheme, featuring the word ‘sex’ in fairy lights, asks: ‘Getting “turned on” this Christmas?’ And a dedicated website for the service is titled, rather bawdily, santacomes.org.Women wanting to […]
BMJ publishes Secular Medical Forum ‘advertorial’
On 30 November the British Medical Journal published an article by Colin Brewer, ‘a director of the Secular Medical Forum’ , titled ‘Secularism needs a distinctive medical voice’. The 900 word one page article, which appeared in the BMJ’s ‘personal view’ column, and claimed to be ‘not commissioned; not externally peer reviewed’, is essentially an […]
Is ‘faith healing’ costing lives?
As we approach yet another World AIDS day, it is worth stopping to reflect where we have got to this year. First the good news – new HIV infections are down, deaths are down, and the number of people on antiretroviral treatment is up. The UN High Level Meeting on AIDS in New York last […]
Tony Nicklinson deserves sympathy but hard cases make bad law
A severely disabled man from Wiltshire is to ask the High Court to allow a doctor to end his life. Tony Nicklinson, 57, is paralysed from the neck down after suffering a stroke in 2005. He cannot speak or move anything except his head and eyes and communicates through nodding his head at letters on […]
MDU warns against doctors providing medical reports to suicidal patients
The Medical Defence Union (MDU) in its latest advice to doctors (MDU Journal, Volume 27 issue 2 November 2011, Page 24) has published a case study to emphasise the point that doctors who supply medical records to patients who are intending to commit suicide could well be prosecuted. In February 2010 the Director of Public […]
The ‘new’ guidelines on abortion from the RCOG
Just as the leopard cannot change its spots, nor does it seem that the RCOG can change its controversial stance with its revised guidelines for the care of women requesting abortion. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) guidance on ‘The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion’ was first published in 2000. An updated […]
Hospital kills ‘wrong’ twin in selective abortion – both babies now dead
Children with special needs can be a great challenge to care for but a tragic story from Australia this week demonstrates that the search for the perfect child can have devastating consequences. Steven Ertelt in Melbourne relates the story on Life Site News. A hospital in Australia is making news for having killed the ‘wrong’ […]
Industrial Action: How should Christians in the NHS respond?
Many Christian nurses and allied health professionals have been asking me how they should act in the face of a mounting industrial dispute. Next Wednesday (30 November), around 100,000 health workers in the UK will join an estimated 2 million other public sector employees in a one day strike in protest about the government’s proposal […]
Spiritually confused care?
Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, recently spoke of the need to remember the spiritual needs of patients in NHS care – and was promptly accused of bringing back medieval exorcism! In the following week, the Royal College of Nursing published a new online training resource to equip nurses in spiritual care, after a survey […]
Adult stem cell research leaps forward whilst embryonic stem cell work slows
It has been an amazing week in the field of stem cell technology with five big stories hitting the news all at once. New doors of therapeutic promise are opening whilst at the same time other doors are slamming shut. I recently highlighted a New Scientist editorial, ‘In praise of stem-cell simplicity’, which gives a […]
Should ‘gay’ Christians be true to their feelings?
Last Wednesday’s Metro (a London newspaper) (p35) ran the story of ‘a burly rugby player’ who ‘suffered a stroke in training and woke up to find he was gay’ (See ‘Different strokes – 19st rugby player now gay hairdresser’) Mr Birch (pictured) was ‘straight’ and engaged to be married when he suffered a freak accident […]
Why legalising assisted suicide inevitably also legalises euthanasia
The Falconer Commission on ‘Assisted Dying’ is about to be put out of its misery when it reports later this month. Having been suggested by Dignity in Dying (formerly the Voluntary Euthanasia Society), paid for by one of its patrons and stacked full of euthanasia sympathisers by Lord Falconer’s own admission (and also for these reasonsdiscredited by the […]