
blogs


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…
Abortion and mental health – strongest evidence yet of a link
With uncanny timing, in the light of a Parliamentary debate next week on pre-abortion counselling, the prestigious British Journal of Psychiatry has today published the findings of one of the largest studies of its kind on abortion, showing that almost 10% of all mental health problems are directly linked to abortion. Overall, women with an […]
Morphine kills the pain, not the patient
One of the most depressing aspects of campaigning against the legalisation of assisted suicide is dealing with misinformation propagated by the pro-euthanasia lobby and sadly at times even by members of the medical profession. One of the ‘myths’ used to prop up the failing case for the legalisation of assisted suicide is the false belief […]
Tragic story of Sophie Tyler demonstrates triumph of hope over adversity
The media today carry the tragic story of a teenager left paralysed from the waist down by a hospital error. An epidural spinal anaesthetic was wrongly left in place after Sophie Tyler, 17, of Risca, near Newport, had a gall stone operation. Birmingham Children’s Hospital has now apologised and admitted liability and a medical law […]
Make bias history – a call to support moves for independent abortion counselling
Many people assume that women considering abortion have access to independent information and advice. In fact there is no legal guarantee that they do. Where counselling is available, it is often given by the very same private providers that carry out abortions and gain financially from them! Vulnerable women frequently find themselves on a conveyor belt […]
How private abortion providers gained a stranglehold on taxpayer funded abortions
Abortion was legalised in Britain in 1967. However, under the Labour government of 1997 to 2010 abortion became a publicly funded private industry with abortion ‘providers’ gaining a stranglehold. I have highlighted in a previous blog how tax-payer funded abortions have moved progressively from the public to the private sector over the last two decades. […]
Should christian doctors and nurses strike?
Over the last few days, health unions have been meeting to decide whether they will begin preparations for coordinated industrial action over the autumn and winter in response to the government’s proposals on NHS staff pensions. The BMA, RCN, UNISON, Managers in Partnership Unite and GMB have been meeting to decide if, when and how they […]
Making Poor Choices: are commercial concerns wrecking our health?
Cancer, diabetes, heart disease, lung diseases, and strokes are the major causes of death and disability in the developed world. However such non-communicable diseases (NCDs) could also be the next big health issue to appear on the global agenda – but it’s proving hard to get real global interest and response going. In South-East Asia […]
What Abdel Al-Megrahi and Ronnie Biggs teach us about the fallibility of ‘safeguards’ in assisted suicide laws
Tomorrow, 20 August, marks the second anniversary of the release from a Scottish prison of Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi, the only person convicted for the Lockerbie bombing. A leading article in today’s Times, ‘Dodging the bullet’, highlights the fact that he was sent home to Libya on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government after medical […]
Case of man with ‘locked-in syndrome’ may arouse emotions but the law does not need changing
The BBC, Daily Telegraph and most newspapers report today on the case of a 46-year-old man with ‘locked in syndrome’ who is to ask the High Court for permission to allow doctors to help him end his own life. As the Telegraph reports: ‘The man, known for legal reasons only as Martin, suffered a severe […]
British Medical Journal publishes my reply to its article on CMF and faith discussions with patients
A couple of weeks ago the British Medical Journal published an article in its Lobby Watch column about Christian Medical Fellowship, focussing on the issue of whether or not Christian doctors should engage in faith discussions with patients. This week they have published my response which I quote below in full for the benefit of […]
New pre-natal screening test makes eliminating all people with genetic disease an achievable reality
‘Fetal DNA tests: Are we finally entering an era of eugenics?’ This was the question raised by Nancy Fliesler on the Vector blog last January. As an Ashkenazi Jew planning to have a baby, Fliesler sought prenatal screening for Tay-Sachs disease, an incurable and lethal condition. But she asks, ‘What about diseases that don’t severely […]
Christian pharmacists under threat from new guidelines on morning-after pill provision
Christian pharmacists who object to dispensing the morning-after pill are facing pressure from their professional regulator to recommend other outlets to customers. Many pharmacists – not just Christians – have moral objections to the morning-after pill because the drug may in some cases act after fertilisation by preventing the implantation of an early embryo. It […]