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Increasing survival of extremely premature babies again raises questions about upper abortion limits
The increasing survival of extremely premature babies is again raising serious questions about the 24…

Activists’ attempt to legalise abortion on demand up until birth is both unnecessary and unwanted
A campaign by activists to legalise abortion on demand up until birth hots up again this month, with…

End of Life Issues. What can we expect in 2017?
Things have been quieter than usual on the end of life front in the UK since the overwhelming defeat…

Sex and Relationship Education: should it be compulsory in schools or not?
The Government has just announced major changes to Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) in all schools,…

Regulator’s proposal to remove pharmacists’ conscience rights is unethical, unnecessary and quite possibly illegal
Should pharmacists be forced to dispense drugs for what they consider to be unethical practices – like…

Surrogacy – good rulings from Europe put the UK out on a limb
The disentangling of the UK from the European Union will inevitably, over time, put us more and more…

The age-old question: Science and political interests in the debate over abortion
Political agendas hiding behind science are nothing new. A particularly famous episode occurred in the…

Global Health – challenges for the coming year
2016 may have got a bad press in some parts of the media, but step back from the Anglophone world and…

Beginning of Life issues in 2017: what will we be talking about this year?
2017 will be another busy and challenging year on beginning of life issues
Abortion
October 2017 marks…

Bullying and NHS Culture
It seems hard to credit that an organisation whose primary focus is the care of the sick, disabled and…

Despite the marketing, egg freezing is not all it’s cracked up to be
IVF has become an almost routine procedure since the birth of Louise Brown in 1978. So much so that women…
By focusing exclusively on HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB, Western governments and NGOs have neglected other easily treatable and curable diseases
Micah Challenge is a global coalition of Christians holding governments to account for their promise to halve extreme poverty by 2015. It is establishing a global movement to encourage deeper Christian commitment to the poor, and to speak out to leaders to act with justice and its specific focus is the Millennium Development Goals. The […]
Serious questions raised about status and independence of new Commission on ‘Assisted Dying’
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) last week ran a story about a new Commission on ‘Assisted Dying’ that is due to launch officially on Tuesday 30 November in London. Demos, which is hosting the commission, describes itself on its website as ‘a think-tank focused on power and politics’ and gives the following information about the […]
17th Century lesson for medical students today
Thomas Sydenham, a man of deep Christian faith who many regard as the father of English medicine, said the following in his advice to medical students in 1668: ‘Whoever applies himself to medicine should seriously weigh the following considerations: First, that he will one day have to render an account to the supreme Judge of […]
Death of a tea lady – the unforeseen effects of a bad management decision
When I was a general surgical registrar in Auckland, New Zealand the ‘management era’ was just beginning. Someone, who I expect had never worn greens and didn’t know one end of a retractor from another, was examining the operating theatre budget in some office remote from the front line. About $15,000 needed to be saved […]
Scottish GPs add their voices to those calling for final burial of Scottish ‘End of Life Assistance Bill’. Read final committee conclusions here.
A GROUP of 47 GPs have united in opposition to moves at the Scottish Parliament to legalise assisted suicide. The Scotsman published the letter on Saturday. On Thursday 25 November the Scottish Parliament will vote on Margo Macdonald’s End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill, which if passed will legalise both assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia […]
The Committee scrutinizing Margo MacDonald’s Bill have recommended that it be rejected – now it is time for MSPs finally to bury it
I have previously blogged about Margo MacDonald’s End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill which seeks to legalise both assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia and Scotland. I argued that Margo Macdonald has been seriously misleading both the Scottish people and Parliament itself about its likely effects. The Committee scrutinizing the bill has now published its Stage […]
‘We have a charge from Christ to care for the weakest in society’ – Dr Trevor Stammers speaks on Channel 4 about abortion
Channel Four are showing a series of short films this week about different people’s views on abortion. Dr Trevor Stammers spoke tonight and you can watch the clip on the Channel 4 website. Here are some excerpted comments: ‘To me it’s an absolutely chilling thought that the Virgin Mary would have been a prime candidate […]
Don’t believe everything you read in the Washington Post – a compendium of the most recent medical evidence linking abortion and mental health
I recently blogged about an adjournment debate in the House of Commons in which Nadine Dorries MP spoke about the mental health consequences of abortion and argued the case for a law ensuring that women seeking abortion be offered information about the health consequences of their decision. The day after the debate the Daily Telegraph […]
The pro-euthanasia lobby’s reaction to Frances Inglis’ sentence reveals their agenda and ignores key facts of the case
Under British law mercy killing (ie. euthanasia voluntary or involuntary) is treated as murder under the Murder Act 1965 and carries a sentence of life imprisonment. The judge has discretion in sentencing for murder depending on the facts of the case and may lessen the sentence in the light of mitigating factors such as ‘provocation’ […]
The Inglis judgment should send a strong signal that it is not acceptable to take another person’s life, even in desperation.
A woman from East London who was found guilty of murder after giving her brain-damaged son a lethal heroin injection to end his ‘living hell’ has lost an appeal against conviction. Frances Inglis, 58, of Dagenham, was jailed for life with a minimum term of nine years at the Old Bailey in January. Three judges […]
New advances in embryo testing may result in higher success rates for IVF but at what cost?
Two new embryo screening tests have been recently developed that researchers believe will increase success rates for women having a health baby after IVF treatment. At present only about 30% of women under 35 have a baby following IVF and this percentage drops with age falling to 10% by age 40. The new tests enable […]
New report claims that junior doctors’ training ‘puts patients at risk’ but will the government be prepared to pay for the real solution required?
A new report, Foundation for Excellence, this week has claimed that patients are being put at ‘unnecessary risk’ because inexperienced junior doctors are being ‘thrown in at the deep end’. The 128-page report, led by Professor John Collins of Oxford University (interestingly one of my old surgical bosses!) for Medical Education England, analysed the two-year […]