
blogs


Palliative Medicine specialists to investigate Liverpool Care Pathway
The Association for Palliative Medicine, representing over 1,000 doctors working in hospices and specialist…

27% of all human deaths in England and Wales are due to abortion
A full listing of ‘all’ deaths in England and Wales in 2010 is available on the Guardian website…

‘Death Lists’ – how unbalanced reporting can damage a well-intentioned initiative to improve care
In the last two days the Daily Mail has run two articles with the following alarmist headlines:
Put…

The Liverpool Care Pathway – consensus statement from 22 organisations
Twenty two leading healthcare organisations last month published a statement about the Liverpool Care…

Teenage pregnancies – three responses to three false presuppositions
A couple of years ago Peter Saunders wrote that current government sexual health strategies for tackling…

The stories behind the Nobel Prize winners
This year's Nobel Prize winners for Medicine both come with interesting stories behind them, and very…

Huge opposition to assisted suicide in Massachusetts from doctors and disabled people in lead up to ballot
The US state of Massachusetts is to hold a referendum on the legalisation of assisted suicide next…

Most members of cabinet have previously voted for lowering the abortion limit to 20 weeks or below
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has come in for criticism today for saying that he believes the upper abortion…

Why Jeremy Hunt and 70 other MPs voted in 2008 to lower the upper abortion limit to 12 weeks
The front page of the Times this Saturday reports that Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, supports lowering…

Top 10 tips: applying for specialty training (part 2)
Part 2 of Dr Sarah Maidment's advice on applying for specialty training for junior doctors. Part 1 can…

Five reasons why Maria Miller’s proposal to lower abortion limit to 20 weeks makes good sense
Maria Miller, the new minister for women and equalities, would like to see the upper abortion limit come…
Margo MacDonald MSP is seriously misleading the Scottish People and Parliament
Margo MacDonald claims that about 50 Scots a year would die if her ‘end of life assistance’ bill were to be enacted. She makes this remarkable claim on the basis that experience in the few countries where assisted death has been legalised shows that it accounts for only one in every 2,000’ deaths – though, […]
The government needs to invest more in cord blood
More than two years ago CMF welcomed a new bill which encouraged the donation at childbirth of umbilical cord blood and its storage for public use. It also called on the government to invest more actively in developing the NHS cord stem cell bank. MP David Burrowes’ Umbilical Cord Blood (Donation) Bill aimed to increase […]
Helping Haiti
Following the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday 12 January, causing tragic loss of life and massive destruction, CMF members have been asking how they should respond to this disaster. The UK Department of Health reports that the initial acute medical response is now well underway with 14 field hospitals, one US hospital ship […]
The brain is like a muscle – use it or lose it
Some years ago on a trip to India I shared a room with a doctor at a Christian Medical Conference in New Delhi where we were both speaking. He was a travelling evangelist and Bible teacher from Kerala who had put many long train trips to good use by memorising Scripture and could tell you […]
DPP guidance on prosecutions for assisted suicide comes in for serious criticism
On 30 July the Law Lords, ruling on the Debbie Purdy case, required the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keir Starmer (pictured) to publish the facts and circumstances he would take into account in deciding whether to bring a prosecution under the Suicide Act. Under the Suicide Act 1961 assisting with suicide carries a sentence […]
Global warming is much more about per capita consumption than population
In February Jonathon Porritt, chairman of the UK Government’s Sustainable Development Commission, said that curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of efforts to combat global warming, and that couples who had more than two children were irresponsible. This idea – that our planet is heating up as a result […]
Goats and kitchen sinks for Christmas
Some friends told me this week that they had given each of their children a £50 allowance this year to buy Christmas gifts for people living in developing countries. Their kids had grasped the opportunity with both hands, putting careful thought into their purchases, and even adding some of their own savings in an effort […]
Climate Change, Population and Health
At the time of writing, the Copenhagen Climate Change Talks are about to happen, and much comment in the media suggests that the chances of a meaningful agreement on curbing emissions rests on whether the West can persuade India, China, Brazil and much of the developing world to sign up. At the same time, reports […]