
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…
New evidence that patients in ‘Permanent Vegetative State’ may be consciously aware
A method of communicating with brain damaged patients who appear to be in a permanent vegetative state has been discovered by scientists in the UK and Belgium and reported in the Lancet online today, 10 November. Out of sixteen patients diagnosed in the vegetative state, three could repeatedly and reliably respond to two distinct commands, […]
New review highlights positive benefits of marriage
The Family Education Trust has just highlighted a report from the Institute of American values which is of huge relevance here given that the government intends to undermine the distinctiveness of marriage by legalizing same-sex marriage. Based on a survey of over 250 peer-reviewed journal articles on marriage and family life from around the world, […]
Opt in or opt out for organ donation? Pressure grows for change
There have been growing demands this week for the introduction of a system of organ donation across the UK in which everyone is automatically placed on the organ donor register. This would mean that, unless people specifically opted out, hospitals would be allowed to use their organs for transplants on their death. Monday saw the […]
Euthanasia of woman with advanced dementia in Netherlands sounds loud warning to Britain
A 64-year-old woman suffering severe senile dementia has been euthanised in the Netherlands – even though she was no longer able to express her wish to die. The unnamed woman was a long-term supporter of euthanasia and had made a written statement when she was still well, saying how she wished to die. But the […]
Practising compassion and justice
Having just got back from a two day conference in the Netherlands on researching and teaching spiritual care for nursing students, I was once again confronted on my return to our island shores by more stories about the failures of even the most basic care in our country. Indeed, one of the features of all […]
Some good news from Europe
The economic crisis in the Eurozone is dominating headlines, but it has not all been bad news from Europe. Hidden in the media reporting from Europe at the end of last week was some encouraging news about an ECHR ruling that upholds a ban in Austria on using donor egg and sperm for IVF. Interestingly, […]
Another study showing a strong link between abortion and mental health problems
I’m grateful to AAPLOG for drawing my attention to yet another study showing a strong link between abortion and mental illness. The paper, titled ‘Associations Between Abortion, Mental Disorders, and Suicidal Behaviour in a Nationally Representative Sample’ was published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry in April 2010 and confirmed ‘a strong association between abortion […]
Pressure grows on David Cameron to support ‘Robin Hood Tax’ ahead of G20 summit
Last week I was one of 70 organisational leaders who signed a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron asking him to support a new international tax at the G20 summit. The letter, pasted below, was delivered last Monday. On 3-4 November the G20 convenes in Cannes as leaders from the world’s major economies gather to […]
Seven billion – BBC brings some welcome balance to the population debate
According to the BBC, when I was born, I was the 2,909,761,661st person alive on Earth and the 76,445,556,695th person to have lived since history began. You can calculate your own number on line and if you put in today’s date you will learn that there have been 83 billion people born since 50,000 […]
New test highlights a stark paradox at the heart of prenatal testing
It is easy to garner opposition to prenatal testing and abortion of fetuses found with a duplicate X-chromosome in each cell. This is a condition commonly diagnosed as “female.” The testing of a fetus to find out its sex, with the aim of aborting it if it is not the ‘right’ or ‘wanted’ gender is […]
Abortion for Down’s Syndrome – tragic story, review of trends and personal reflections
There was a tragic story in the Daily Mail yesterday titled ‘Having an amnio test ruined my life’. It relates the testimony of Marie Ideson who was coerced by doctors into having an abortion for her 16 week old baby with Down’s Syndrome, a decision she now bitterly regrets. The incident led eventually not just […]
Population control lobby seeks to impose its agenda rather than addressing the real causes of poverty
The world’s population is due to pass seven billion on 31 October and campaigners for population control are again using it as an opportunity to promote their agenda. Back in February 2009 Jonathon Porritt (pictured), former chairman of the UK Government’s Sustainable Development Commission, said that curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must […]