
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…
Religion is based on dogma whilst science is based on evidence? No, actually each accommodates both.
Dr Evan Harris has this morning recommended that everyone read an article in the Guardian newspaper on Science and faith titled, ‘Faster than light story highlights the difference between science and religion’. So I did. You are welcome to read it yourself (it is very short) but its main message is encapsulated in the following […]
Landmark High Court ruling maintains legal protection for vulnerable people
The Christian Medical Fellowship has welcomed a landmark ruling by a High Court Judge that a brain-damaged woman should not have her life ended. Known as ‘M’ the 52 year old is in what is known as a ‘Minimally Conscious State’, meaning that she does have some degree of awareness; in effect she is in the […]
BBC report of Stuart Mungall case is factually inaccurate and seriously misleading
Retired actor Stuart Mungall, 71, has today been given a twelve month sentence suspended for two years for smothering his 69-year-old wife Joan Mungall with a pillow at their home in Tooting, south London. The BBC headline reporting the case, ‘Wife-killing Yorkie advert man walks free from court’, is factually inaccurate and seriously misleading but […]
More hype about embryonic stem cells from the BBC
The BBC today is running a new stem cell story with the grandiose title ‘UK medics lead Europe’s first embryonic stem cell trial’ as follows: Doctors at Moorfields Eye hospital in London have been given the go-ahead to carry out Europe’s first clinical trial using human embryonic stem cells. They will inject retinal cells into […]
Global annual cost of tackling non-communicable diseases only 1% of UK Bank Bailout
The BBC has reported on the World Health Organization’s plan to tackle non-communicable diseases like heart disease, which it says now pose a greater global burden than infectious diseases. The plan was published just after the conclusion of the UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in New […]
VIDEO: non-communicable diseases top UN General Assembly agenda
For only the second time in its history, the General Assembly of United Nations will be discussing a major global health issue and seeking concerted national action. For the next two days, the only gathering of representatives of all 193 countries in the UN will look at non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in an attempt to tackle […]
George Monbiot and the Guardian conspiracy theory
Guardian columnist George Monbiot contacted us at CMF last Monday to ask about our finances. The Guardian has recently linked CMF and other organisations to financial backers with mega-bucks and right-wing politics in the southern states of America. A chart across a double page spread headlined ‘Abortion debate: Dorries campaign urged to reveal how it […]
Maternal health is a domestic, as well as a global issue
Several stories in recent days illustrate the rather confused priorities of the British government towards maternal health. Yesterday the Royal College of Midwives reported that parts of England are facing shortages of midwives of between ten and 41 per cent – set against the background of a 22% rise in birth rate over the last […]
HIV Prevention – new PEPFAR Strategy is not as radical as it sounds
In the last eight years, the controversial US President’s Emergency Programme Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has pumped billions of dollars into HIV treatment and prevention programmes that has got millions onto ante-retroviral treatment (ART) programmes, and invested heavily in prevention programmes. In 2010 alone, PEPFAR supported treatment for 3.2 million people; averted 114,475 mother-to-child […]
Abortion counselling vote: a defeat but not a loss
Just like the heated debate prior to the vote in Parliament this week on counselling before abortion, the public debate after the vote has been dominated by controversies, claims and counter claims. However, in all of this debate, there has been little coverage of the concern that most people do agree on, that access to […]
Crown Prosecution Service defends assisted suicide policy among accusations of ‘legislation by stealth’
The Times is reporting that the Crown Prosecution Service is clearing the way for assisted suicide by not taking action in cases of assisted suicide. The Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer acknowledged that no prosecutions had been made since CPS guidelines were given a year and a half ago. All cases of assisted suicide […]
Germany has independent abortion counselling and an abortion rate less than half of Britain’s
It was refreshing to see Liam Fox, Defence Secretary, saying last night that he would support any measure that lowered the British abortion rate. He and others like him would be well advised to look at the German system. Germany has an abortion rate of 8 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 per year. By […]