The Royal College of Psychiatrists consultation on abortion and mental health – let’s put this into perspective
Some people have expressed concern about an article published in the Daily Telegraph yesterday which…
Live blog: new mood of militancy among nurses
CMF's Head of Allied Professions, Steve Fouch (pictured below), is at the RCN Congress in Liverpool.…
Dorries and Field are not pro-life but their abortion amendments are a small step in the right direction
If you type ‘abortion’ into Google News these days you will find that most of the reports thrown…
Nan Maitland’s assisted suicide demonstrates the incremental extension that will follow any change in the law
According to the Sunday Times, an 84 year old British woman committed suicide at a Swiss facility last…
Missing midwives costs mothers’ lives
On 1 April 2011 Save the Children launched a campaign to find the missing midwives.
Save the Children’s…
Welsh teenagers to get morning-after pill over the counter – a plan that’ll backfire
I recently blogged on the fact, surprising to some, that morning-after pills don’t actually cut teen…
Pro-choice critics of the Dorries/Field amendments on abortion counselling are misrepresenting the medical facts
There has been considerable media interest in the fact that two MPs (Nadine Dorries and Frank Field)…
Putting the last first – medical mission on the front line
‘Every child should be able to access healthcare regardless of who they are and where they are born.’This…
Chinese baby girl cull backed by Britain – gender imbalance in China with British funding
Sex-selective abortions have led to severe gender imbalance in China, India and South Korea according…
‘23 week babies – the price of life’ on the BBC – a review
The recent BBC documentary ‘23 week babies – the price of life’ represented 6 months of filming…
New study shows that UK doctors consistently oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide
A new study suggests that doctors in the UK have opposed both euthanasia and assisted consistently over…
A new milestone in irresponsible media reporting of suicide
I was phoned last Monday by Sky News to be told that they were planning to give an international media platform to a new case of assisted suicide involving a media personality who was dying of cancer. The story has broken today. This carefully orchestrated move by a former BBC producer, in collaboration with the […]
Is restrictive abortion legislation ineffectual, as new research claims?
According to a number of newspaper articles last week, abortion rates are unaffected by legislation. In other words, countries with more restrictive abortion laws have pretty much the same rates as those with very few restrictions. The news headlines read: ‘Countries with restricted access to abortion, including the UK, do not have lower termination rates […]
Please support the current definition of marriage in Scotland
The Scottish Government Same-Sex Marriage Consultation closes on Friday 9 December. CMF is backing Scotland for Marriage in its campaign to retain the current legal definition of marriage which has served Scotland well for centuries. Scotland for Marriage is opposed to redefining marriage in Scotland and is calling for a referendum on this issue. Respondents […]
‘Life’ sentences for murder are necessary to deter would-be mercy killers
A group of legal ‘experts’ has claimed today that mandatory life sentences for murder in England and Wales and the system for setting minimum terms are unjust and outdated. The Homicide Review Advisory Group, made up of judges, academics and former QCs, says the system does not allow for sentences to match individual crimes.The mandatory life […]
Plan to sell morning-after pill to teenagers online this Christmas will lead to more sexually transmitted disease
A British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) campaign, launched today, encourages women to stockpile emergency contraceptive pills over the Christmas period. According to the Daily Telegrapha poster for the scheme, featuring the word ‘sex’ in fairy lights, asks: ‘Getting “turned on” this Christmas?’ And a dedicated website for the service is titled, rather bawdily, santacomes.org.Women wanting to […]
BMJ publishes Secular Medical Forum ‘advertorial’
On 30 November the British Medical Journal published an article by Colin Brewer, ‘a director of the Secular Medical Forum’ , titled ‘Secularism needs a distinctive medical voice’. The 900 word one page article, which appeared in the BMJ’s ‘personal view’ column, and claimed to be ‘not commissioned; not externally peer reviewed’, is essentially an […]
Is ‘faith healing’ costing lives?
As we approach yet another World AIDS day, it is worth stopping to reflect where we have got to this year. First the good news – new HIV infections are down, deaths are down, and the number of people on antiretroviral treatment is up. The UN High Level Meeting on AIDS in New York last […]
Tony Nicklinson deserves sympathy but hard cases make bad law
A severely disabled man from Wiltshire is to ask the High Court to allow a doctor to end his life. Tony Nicklinson, 57, is paralysed from the neck down after suffering a stroke in 2005. He cannot speak or move anything except his head and eyes and communicates through nodding his head at letters on […]
MDU warns against doctors providing medical reports to suicidal patients
The Medical Defence Union (MDU) in its latest advice to doctors (MDU Journal, Volume 27 issue 2 November 2011, Page 24) has published a case study to emphasise the point that doctors who supply medical records to patients who are intending to commit suicide could well be prosecuted. In February 2010 the Director of Public […]
The ‘new’ guidelines on abortion from the RCOG
Just as the leopard cannot change its spots, nor does it seem that the RCOG can change its controversial stance with its revised guidelines for the care of women requesting abortion. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) guidance on ‘The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion’ was first published in 2000. An updated […]
Hospital kills ‘wrong’ twin in selective abortion – both babies now dead
Children with special needs can be a great challenge to care for but a tragic story from Australia this week demonstrates that the search for the perfect child can have devastating consequences. Steven Ertelt in Melbourne relates the story on Life Site News. A hospital in Australia is making news for having killed the ‘wrong’ […]
Industrial Action: How should Christians in the NHS respond?
Many Christian nurses and allied health professionals have been asking me how they should act in the face of a mounting industrial dispute. Next Wednesday (30 November), around 100,000 health workers in the UK will join an estimated 2 million other public sector employees in a one day strike in protest about the government’s proposal […]