John Wyatt writes...

Medical Ethics issues continue to make waves as ‘top stories’ on the Media; and get good coverage in this quarter’s edition of Triple Helix (editorials and Eutychus) and Nucleus (News Review). If you don’t get a paper copy of either the full text of both is available on the CMF website.

With the Gender Recognition Bill having passed through the Lords and now at Report Stage in the Commons, transsexuality is very topical, and is the subject of the April CMF File and also the How I’d handle it column in Triple Helix. It is very likely indeed to become law, thus allowing transsexuals to change their birth certificates and putting others at risk of charges of discrimination for not treating them in accordance with their chosen gender.

Four key court cases will hit the news in the next few months. We are currently awaiting High Court judges’ verdicts on Leslie Burke’s judicial review of the GMC guidance on withholding and withdrawing treatment, and Natallie Evans' attempt to have her frozen embryos implanted against the wishes of her former partner.

Joanna Jepson returns to the High Court on 24 May to challenge the West Mercia police department’s failure to investigate a case of late abortion for cleft palate; and the Prolife Alliance go to the House of Lords to challenge last year’s Court of Appeal decision to allow the Hashmi family to create a designer sibling to provide transplant material for their son Zain who has thalassemia major.

CMF members are urged to put pen to paper and write to members of the House of Lords Select Committee on Euthanasia, which has been set up in response to Lord Joffe’s Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill. There are at least three Christians on the committee including the chairman Lord MacKay and former Professor of Surgery Lord McColl. You can find more information in Peter Saunders’ Triple Helix editorials, along with news of the government consultation Choosing Health? where CMF members could also make a real contribution.

Please continue to pray for our country’s political leaders and judiciary as they consider these serious matters of life and death.