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New ‘withdrawal of treatment’ case poses major threat to disabled people
BBC Radio 4’s File on Four programme earlier this week, ‘A Living Death’, featured four case…

Reclaiming dignity in dying
BBC scriptwriters, viewers and listeners fought back over the weekend to recapture the word ‘dignity’…

Human rights of the elderly once again being neglected
Today saw the publication of yet another in a series of damning reports on the failures of our care system.
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General Medical Council confirms the appropriateness of sensitive faith discussions with patients
Last Thursday I took part in a discussion on the BBC Radio 4 PM programme about whether or not faith…

At a Given Moment – recognising worldview as part of a healthy diagnosis
CMF member Dr Graham McAll has worked as a general surgeon and inner city GP. In a timely new book,…

A surprisingly upbeat end to the UN high level meeting on AIDS promises renewed global action
UN meetings and political declarations are often perceived as wordy and irrelevant. But every now and…

Twenty facts we did not learn from Terry Pratchett’s BBC ‘documentary’ on assisted suicide in Europe
The Sunday Times, in line with its new editorial policy, ran a typically effusive article last weekend…

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (15 June) – A reminder to treasure, honour and protect the older members of our community
You are unlikely to read about it in the British press, but today, 15 June, is World Elder Abuse Awareness…

NHS reforms expose the British idolatry of our healthcare system
Nigel Lawson once famously said that the NHS is the nearest thing that the British have to a national…

New BBC Radio Four programme – Are we in for more bludgeoning of disabled people?
I've just been alerted to the fact that BBC Radio 4 is running another forty-minute 'documentary' on…

The collapse of Southern Cross – is capitalism crushing care and compassion?
As the country’s biggest independent provider of care homes for the elderly sinks deeper into a financial…
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 […]