
blogs


Cloning Neanderthal babies: what we really need to be concerned about
Could it really be possible to create a cloned Neanderthal baby? A Harvard Professor of Genetics, who…

Self-help books for depression – brilliant new tools for doctors, pastors and patients
A top health story on the BBC this last week has highlighted a new study showing that prescribing self-help…

Catholic midwives appeal court ruling forcing them to supervise abortions
Two Roman Catholic midwives who lost a legal battle to avoid taking part in abortion procedures have…

HPV vaccine – mothers influence daughters choices but deep questions remain
A mother's attitude towards cervical cancer screening influences decisions to vaccinate daughters against…

Faith matters post-2015
With 2015 looming ever closer, the process to find a set of mutually agreed global goals for development is…

The Department of Health is grossly under-reporting the true number of abortions for Down’s syndrome
Some of the most common congenital abnormalities accounting for abortions in England and Wales are ‘trisomies’,…

Liverpool Care Pathway – nine points for the government to consider in its review
Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, yesterday hailed the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway…

Health professionals and organisations misusing LCP should be reported to regulators, says CQC
The Liverpool Care Pathway was developed at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the city's…

Amour – an award winning film with a sting in the tail
Amour (literally, ‘Love’) is a 2012 French-language film written and directed by Michael Haneke…

The global burden of disease – let’s not forget the spiritual dimension
Yesterday saw the publication of a landmark, multicentre collaborative study on the global burden of…

Ireland and abortion – an update on recent events and the current legislative predicament
The international spotlight is now on Ireland in the wake of the case of Savita Halappanavar who, it…
Dilnot lays some tentative foundations
Monday saw the publication of the Dilnot Report – the latest in a long line of reports and studies commissioned by government into how we, as a society, are going to care for our growing, and increasingly long lived elderly population. This is more than an academic exercise. A century ago, few people lived long […]
Major British study links premature births to previous abortions
The Times has just reported on new research which shows that women who have had an abortion are more likely to give birth to a premature baby and to suffer several other pregnancy complications when they next conceive. This is hugely significant just as parliament is about to debate an amendment to the Health and […]
Adoption czar: women with unwanted pregnancies should give up babies for adoption
It’s not every day that you hear someone official say something profoundly politically incorrect but true and have it reported by the Times. The Times front page today carried photographs of a whole host of well known celebrities and personalities who were adopted and ran an in depth feature on the issue highlighting a report […]
MPs attack the ‘ingrained bias’ of staff at the BBC on euthanasia
I recently blogged about the BMA vote to undermine the Falconer Commission on assisted suicide and about why I had told the Daily Mail that the BBC was acting as a cheerleader for assisted suicide. I see today that a group of MPs has attacked the ‘ingrained bias’ of staff at the BBC towards a […]
The tip of the iceberg: latest from Developing Health 2011
JachinDanielraj is an inspiring lady. She is an Indian doctor now based at the famous Christian Medical College in Vellore. But she hasn’t always been in this big centre. She spent 13 years in a rural mission hospital, working hard to serve the poor. She told us the story of a child who made her […]
Newly revealed abortion statistics evidence of eugenic mindset and failed teenage sexual health strategy
Today, as a result of losing a six year long court battle to the ProLife Alliance (see my earlier blog), the Department of Health was finally forced to disclose the abortion statistics that it has been hiding since 2002. The Department had been refusing to reveal the abortion numbers in any category where there were […]
A movement has an emotional heart
Is the NHS a philosophy, a movement or just an organisation? It has a philosophy – healthcare based on need rather than ability to pay, and certainly it has organisations, but does it have an emotional heart, the characteristic of a movement according to Seth Godin? Seth, author of the bestselling marketing books of the […]
Vicky Lavy blogs from Developing Health 2011
We’re at the beginning of week two of the Developing Health Course. Week one was packed with 33 hours of excellent teaching – exhausting but very inspiring. We’ve heard about trematodes and trypanosomes, scalp veins and scabies, red eyes and refugees. We’ve learnt about diseases affecting millions of people such as malaria, TB, malnutrition, and […]
Video debate from the BMA on the Falconer Commission
The video below includes coverage of the full day’s business on Thursday’s Annual Representative Meeting of the British Medical Association. Dr Mark Pickering (Yorkshire Regional Councuil) speaks for ARM Motion 305 (from the time mark 1:56) and Wendy Savage speaks against (from time mark 2:01). The full debate and vote then follows Loading…Webcast Available Here […]
British Medical Association undermines credibility of Falconer Commission on Assisted Dying
The British Medical Association, representing 140,000 British doctors, has this morning questioned the stated impartiality and independence of Lord Falconer’s Commission on Assisted Dying, supported the BMA leadership’s stance in not giving evidence to it and called on the British Medical Journal Editorial team to present a balanced and unbiased coverage of the Commission. Delegates […]
This week’s hot topic is not PC
This week’s hot topic is not one many people have thought much about. But organ donation, and particularly ‘presumed consent’ (PC), is one we will all have to start thinking much more about in the next five years. It was one of three debates on Tuesday (28 June) at the BMA, it has been covered […]
BMA still not listening on late abortion
On Tuesday 28 June the British Medical Association annual representative meeting voted against a motion which sought to provide legal protection for babies at the threshold of viability by a two to one majority. The motion, proposed by John O’Driscoll of the Worcestershire division, read as follows:’ That this Meeting believes that the legal limit for […]