Printed from: https://www.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=issue&id=66
The scientific basis of Western medicine demands strict adherence to truth, in learning, research, history taking, diagnosis, assessment of results of treatment and performance audit, but in conveying unpalatable truth to patients about their condition opinions differ and practice varies. Problems most readily arise in relation to inoperable malignant disease....
I am on a nostalgia trip tonight having had our meal in the same students' club where in post-war hungry Britain I ate whale steaks for lunch. The whole concept of that now politically unacceptable meal reminds me of the passage of time just as the absence of trams past...
Two recent court cases have fuelled calls for a change in British law regarding euthanasia. In the first, Nigel Cox, a Winchester rheumatologist, was found guilty of the attempted murder of a patient with rheumatologist arthritis, after giving her a lethal injection of potassium chloride in August 1991. He was...
I grew up in a Christian family and attended the local Anglican church from my first days. I chose to follow Christ myself when I was about 18 and then moved to London to start at medical school later the same year. On joining the CU and a local church...
Although details are sketchy the context suggests an acute paralysis of the upper limb, which was healed in response to the prophet's prayer. Possible diagnoses include transient ischaemic attack, axillary artery embolus, hysterical paralysis or brachial plexus neuropraxia. In view of the age and constitution of the patient, apparent absence...
How far is too far? Nitpickerus: Dionysius, in our last discussion you argued that God teaches there is to be no sex except in the context of a lifelong, monogamous relationship between a man and a woman. Dionysius: That's right. No sex outside marriage. Nitpickerus: So how far can unmarried adults...
Answers Sarai (later called Sarah) gave her maid, Hagar, to her husband Abram (later called Abraham) in the hope of having children through her. Ishmael was the result. Later, however, God would re-affirm his covenant commitment to Isaac, the son that Sarah eventually bore (Gn 16:1,2, 21:1-3, 26:24). Hannah named her...
The lady in cubicle B Leaned forward and whispered to me Averting my eye, I adjusted my tie And pretended I just didn't see Her voice, though, continued to sound She asked what the surgeon had found I hedged at the task and suggested she ask The consultant that day on the round The surgeon arrived...
