Printed from: https://www.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=issue&id=6059
2013 will bring more pressure to legalise assisted suicide in Britain with two new parliamentary bills and an ongoing court case to threaten further the lives of elderly and disabled people. But there is also good cause to look back with thanks to God for victories in 2012. Lord...
Mixed reactions Review by Helen Barratt - Clinical Research Fellow in Public Health in London In September, Andrew Lansley was replaced as Secretary of State for Health by Jeremy Hunt, the former culture secretary, as part of an extensive government reshuffle. Three of the department's other ministers have also been...
Neither ethical nor evidence-based Review by Peter Saunders CMF Chief Executive School nurses have given implants or jabs to girls aged between 13 and 16 more than 900 times in the past two years. (1) Girls aged 13 have been given contraceptive jabs and implants on more than...
Review by Steve Fouch - CMF Head of Allied Professions Ministries Health goals unlikely to be met With only two years left before they are supposed to be met, it looks like a mixed bag of results for the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) The major goal of halving the number of...
A significant defeat for the assisted suicide lobby Review by Peter Saunders - CMF Chief Executive On the night of the US presidential election on 6 November the state of Massachusetts voted 51% to 49% in a referendum to reject the legalisation of assisted suicide.(1) The question considered read 'Should...
Valerie Rowe helped start a foodbank in her area. 'For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.' (1) As you shop do you think you could buy just one extra item - a tin of fruit, some sugar, a jar of jam?' Have you ever been greeted...
Peter Thornley, President of CDF, writes about its vision and work. The year: 1952. The scene: a dentist's waiting room in Wimbledon, south west London. Present: eight Christian dentists, members of the Inter Varsity Fellowship (later to become the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship). The outcome: the Christian Dental Fellowship...
Alex Bunn on faith in the workplace. Christians are rarely persecuted in the NHS but there is increasing marginalisation of faith in the workplace. More and more we are subject to secular imperatives that are detrimental for people of faith and atheists alike. In October 2011, CMF participated in...
Peter Phillips reflects on appropriate care of frail patients. This is a very emotive topic for healthcare professionals, patients and their families taking place against the backdrop of the debate on assisted dying. However, I hope to demonstrate that withholding or withdrawing care which is no longer in the patient's...
Jeff Stephenson addresses issues about care at the final stages of life. Exemplary palliative care for dying patients and their families was pioneered in hospices, and end of life (EOL) care pathways were developed as a means to extend such care into other settings. The Liverpool Care Pathway for the...
Vicky Lavy highlights news from four CMF members. Nepal: fistula camps Shirley Heywood went to medical school because she felt called to work as a doctor in Nepal. She arrived there nine years ago, via Liverpool, London, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea. She works with International Nepal Fellowship (INF)...
Sarah Maidment stares the experienceof changing specialties. 'I think you'd be better suited to General Practice.' My mother'swords hung heavily in my mind. I had received offers of specialty training in paediatrics from two different deaneries. Not one but two doors had opened for me in paediatrics. I felt...
Fight against TB is still 'fragile' says WHO Some 51 million people are alive today having been successfully treated for tuberculosis over the last 17 years, but the WHO warns the fight against TB remains fragile. 'The momentum to break this disease is in real danger. We are now at...
In those days when the number of disciples was increasing...the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, 'It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who...
'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.' Hamlet Act 1, Scene 5 Our age idolises the gods of economics, technology and science. Debates and decisions within the health service, as in society at large, tend to revolve around them. In...
Frequently asked questions answered for Christians Andrew and Elizabeth Procter SPCK 2012 £8.99 Pb 110pp ISBN 978 0 281106 472 4 Included among the 20 questions covered by the authors are: Does my depression stem from my lack of faith? I must have done something wrong?...
The story of flying mission Malcolm J McArthur Milton Contact Ltd 2011 £19 Pb 321 pp ISBN 978 0 95626 496 1 What is the fastest way to get from one town in Botswana to another across miles and miles of uncharted desert? By plane (ka sefofane in the...
John Caroe PRIME 2002 £5 Pb 60pp ISBN 978 0 95595 271 5 Written to convey the early years of PRIME (Partnerships in International Medical Education), PRIME Calling recounts briefly the early coming together of a group of Christian doctors in Sussex who wanted to'reconcile [their] professional responsibilities with [their]...
Wilfred McSherry and Linda Ross (eds) M & K Publishing, 2010 £27 Pb 190pp ISBN 978 1 90553 927 7 The editors have brought together contributors from nursing, medicine, theology, and chaplaincy from the US and Europe to offer a broad perspective on spiritual care and assessment. I found...
A Practical Theology of Salvation Army Health Ministry Dean Pallant Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2012 £16.00 Pb 222pp ISBN-10: 1610979230 Dean Pallant, Head of International Health Services for the Salvation Army, looks at the place of faith-based organisations in providing health services in the developing world and asks...
Children & pain or disability Gordon W. Kuhrt Morse-Brown, 2011 £7.00 Pb 60pp ISBN 978 1 90761 505 4 Available from bookshops and email: omkuhrt@tiscali.co.uk Gordon Kuhrt writes for children on the problem of suffering. In Part 1 the author tells his own story of long periods in hospital...
Reflections on the heart of the Psalms James Jones SPCK Publishing 2012 £8.99 Pb 176pp ISBN 978 0 21068 050 Bishop James Jones turned to the Book of Common Prayer when, within one week after making a heartfelt speech in the House of Lords, he underwent an angiogram...
Trusting God through the Dark Times Sarah Collins & Jayne Haynes Christian Focus Publications, 2011 £4.99 Pb 128pp ISBN 978 1 845 506 339 Here is a primer for the families, friends and pastors of those suffering from depressive illness, as much as for those currently walking with the'black...
