
blogs


Always Covid and never Christmas?
What kind of Christmas are you looking forward to? This is the second one impacted by Covid and its restrictions,…

Assisted dying – far better help is available than most realise
Far better help is available for patients in great suffering and distress than many people realise.…

Love in the time of Covid – gospel unity on an astonishingly divisive issue of our time
Are you aware that there is a silent spiritual battle going on within our church families?
I have come…

U.S. surgeons successfully test pig kidney transplant in human patient
So ran the headline of an article in Reuters’ ‘Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals’ category late last…

Who’s the boss? Vaccinating our children
‘You do it all then – you’re the boss’, said the dad to his ten-year-old daughter, as they…

Vaccine passports – a 21st-century ‘apartheid’?
Vaccine passports are proof of COVID-19 vaccination status as a condition of participation in certain…

Has the RCP’s reluctance to issue guidance on fMRI scans for coma patients become indefensible?
In March 2020, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in the UK published national guidelines on the management…

‘I’m Going to Convert You’
Conversion Therapy Ban
'I’m going to convert you.' It has a paternalistic – perhaps even narcissistic…

Downright Discrimination – the issues in the Heidi Crowter case
On July 6th and 7th 2021, Heidi Crowter made history. She is the first woman with Down syndrome to take…

Capturing the language of (assisted) death
Those promoting the agenda that, in plain speaking, wants the UK to legalise doctors to be able to provide…

‘Dying with Dignity’ Bill defeated in Ireland
The Joint Committee on Justice in Ireland has put a halt to the Dying with Dignity Bill proposed by…
Do Not Adjust Your Set: Sex, Gender and Public Policy
Last month, David Morgan, a psychoanalyst, and Dr David Bell, a consultant psychiatrist, organised an online conference with around 500 attendees. Recently retired from the Tavistock Clinic, Bell was a staff governor and wrote a report on their Gender Identity Disorder Service (GIDS) in 2018 in which he raised many serious concerns about its provision. […]
‘DIY abortion’ consultations – some ideas for your submissions
The English and Welsh consultations into extending the provision for early medical abortion (EMA) to take place at home beyond the coronavirus crisis are both underway. They close on 26 February and 23 February respectively. These don’t differ significantly from the Scottish consultation, which closed on 5 January. If you need some ideas of how […]
Open letter to the BBC regarding inaccurate and unethical reporting on Bell vs. Tavistock
This letter originally signed by 15 doctors (including myself) and psychologists was sent to the Director General of the BBC just before Christmas. The letter has been made public although not all original signatories were able to make their names public for fear of reprisal. Since being made public many others have added their names […]
COVID-19 Vaccines: making ethical decisions that value human life
As the first COVID-19 vaccines are rolled out, many people are asking how Christians should think about the safety of vaccines developed and tested so quickly, the ethical issues surrounding their connection with tissue derived from an aborted fetus, and the questions around the equitable distribution of the vaccine both in the UK and to […]
Court rules that puberty blockers are ‘experimental treatment’
A judgement handed down from the High Court yesterday (1 December 2020) ruled that puberty blockers (PBs) and cross-sex hormones (CSH) are ‘innovative and experimental’ treatments and that it is unlikely that children and young people will be able to give informed consent to the use of such treatments. The case had been brought to […]
Irreversible Damage – the betrayal of our teenage girls…by the medical profession
In our current climate, it takes courage to write a book critiquing the transgender movement. But that is what Wall Street Journal journalist Abigail Shrier has done. I confess that I was sceptical when approaching the book given the title: ‘Irreversible Damage – The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.’ Why? Because strong opinions in this […]
COVID-19 vaccines: the wider ethical questions for Christians
As the global COVID-19 pandemic continues with no apparent end in sight to the death toll and disruption to our lives, scientists are desperately seeking a means to end the crisis. Perhaps our biggest hope is a successful vaccine. The Pfizer BioNTech and the Moderna candidates have both shown a remarkable 94-95 per cent efficacy rates […]
The COVID vaccine: Christians in crisis or clear conscience?
The coronavirus pandemic has brought challenges and opportunities to all fields of healthcare, whether that be how GP surgeries operate, how hospital beds are allocated or how pioneering research for treatments is conducted. Alongside these changes, many ethical dilemmas have emerged over the past year. One notable case that has been hurled into the foreground […]
The headline figures don’t tell the whole story in the BMA assisted suicide poll
While there have been what seems like an unending succession of polls of British doctors about euthanasia and assisted suicide, that run by the British Medical Association (BMA) early in 2020 can lay claim to being one of the most thorough and significant. With over 29,000 respondents across all areas of medicine and at every […]
It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle: a Christian challenge to the NHS ‘COVID pay rise’
I was rather challenged by Georgie Coster’s heartfelt blog in August on the lack of a pay rise for nurses and other NHS staff in the recent, ‘post COVID’ pay awards. I am one of those ‘hard-working’ Consultants who deserved (according to the BMA and several Royal Colleges at least) this pay rise from the […]
Reflecting God’s image or usurping his position?
For as long as humans have been keeping records, they have been recording their fight against the ultimate enemy – death. Up until a certain point in history, every new advance in technology was aimed at postponing the hour when the grim reaper would come calling. Clothes and shelter so we didn’t freeze to death, […]
The violence of abortion and the domestic abuse bill
It was 1998. I was a young medical intern working in a small hospital in an Indian village. I had looked forward to being posted there as it was meant to be a ‘rest period’ after many sleepless months of working in surgery and hospital medicine. One morning a young lady attended our clinic with […]