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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…
Why is an offshoot of a euthanasia pressure group launching a ‘how-to-die’ helpline?
I see that staff of Dignity in Dying, formerly the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, are planning to set up the UK’s first helpline aimed at speeding the terminally ill towards ‘a good death’. The free phone line, is to be set up under the auspices of DID’s sister organisation Compassion in Dying, a registered charity. The […]
‘Doing God’ is good for your health
Practising Christian faith is good for your health. That’s the verdict of a new report which shows that the faithful live longer and remain healthier. At a time when the health service is facing financial cuts and government is seeking ways to enhance happiness, the report shows that politicians who say ‘We don’t do God’ […]
Government fails in bid to keep statistics on late abortions secret
The Government has failed in a High Court bid to keep secret information on late abortions which it claimed might lead to the identification of individual women involved. A judge today upheld the Information Tribunal’s earlier decision to disclose ‘sensitive’ data from national statistics to the ProLife Alliance. The judge also put a stay on any […]
Pro-euthanasia campaigners use of celebrities to boost support may well fuel more suicides
Columnist Melanie Philips this week, in an article titled ‘Why are the Left (and the BBC) so keen to promote this ghoulish culture of death?’ highlights the growing use of celebrity endorsement for a change in the law. First, we learned that the BBC plans to screen a documentary this summer in which novelist and […]
Why I told the Daily Mail that the BBC was acting as the ‘cheerleader’ for assisted suicide
Last Friday I was quoted on the front page of the Daily Mail as saying that the BBC was acting as ‘cheerleader’ in the campaign to legalise assisted suicide. This article amplifies those comments and gives some of the wider background. The BBC have recently filmed a man killing himself at the notorious Dignitas suicide […]
Unless we reverse demographic trends the generation that killed its children may well be killed by its children
Low fertility rates and an ageing population will present Europe with a big economic challenge. This was one of the points made in a study published by the European Commission at the start of the month. The ‘Third Demography Report’ found that the number of children per woman has increased from 1.45 children, at the time of […]
New genetic screening plans raise serious questions about our attitudes to disability
The Human Genetics Commission (HGC), a government advisory committee, has given the green light to preconception genetic tests saying that there are no specific ‘social, ethical or legal’ reasons that stand in the way. The UK National Screening Committee will now consider this advice as it decides whether widespread screening should be introduced in GP […]
The Royal College of Psychiatrists consultation on abortion and mental health – let’s put this into perspective
Some people have expressed concern about an article published in the Daily Telegraph yesterday which reported on a new consultation by the Royal College of Psychiatrists looking at the relationship between abortion and mental health. The Telegraph headline ‘Abortion doesn’t harm mothers’ mental health’ is actually seriously misleading and the whole piece is somewhat simplistic, […]
Live blog: new mood of militancy among nurses
CMF’s Head of Allied Professions, Steve Fouch (pictured below), is at the RCN Congress in Liverpool. He’s giving us live text, tweet and blog updates as events unfold. Keep following this blog post for further updates. Monday 11 April 2011 13.01 The Royal College of Nursing Congress in Liverpool got off to a heated start […]
Dorries and Field are not pro-life but their abortion amendments are a small step in the right direction
If you type ‘abortion’ into Google News these days you will find that most of the reports thrown up are from the US; and most involve new legislation aimed at curbing abortion rates. A whole host of bills are being introduced in different states aimed at whittling away the abortion law: bills requiring the offer […]
Nan Maitland’s assisted suicide demonstrates the incremental extension that will follow any change in the law
According to the Sunday Times, an 84 year old British woman committed suicide at a Swiss facility last month because she did not want to die of old age. Nan Maitland (pictured), who suffered from arthritis but was active and not terminally ill, left a note saying she wished to escape the ‘long period of […]
Missing midwives costs mothers’ lives
On 1 April 2011 Save the Children launched a campaign to find the missing midwives. Save the Children’s recent research suggests that globally we need 350,000 midwives, and that this shortage of skilled birth attendants means as few as 6% of women in some developing countries have access to skilled birth attendants. As a result […]