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…
Time to change the channel – a submission to the government’s suicide prevention consultation
The Department of Health’s Consultation on its draft suicide prevention strategy for England closed yesterday (11 October). Over the past 10 years, there has been progress in reducing the already relatively low suicide rate in England. However, there were still nearly 4,400 suicides in England in 2009, the latest year for which national data is available. […]
Healthcare Sunday 2011 – praying for those working in health and medicine
Healthcare Sunday was set up over a decade ago as a way to help churches re-engage with health and medicine. For one Sunday every year we pray for, encourage and support those in the church who work in healthcare, and remember all those working in local health institutions. But the association of the Christian faith […]
More irresponsible suicide reporting by the media – there is a better way of dealing with this issue
The former chief inspector of schools, Chris Woodhead, has told how he has considered ending his life at Dignitas, the Swiss suicide facility, after being confined to a wheelchair by motor neurone disease. The hugely controversial head of Ofsted in the 90s claims to have been influenced in this decision by the recent BBC ‘documentary’ […]
Donors’ desires trump patient safety
A paper and accompanying editorial in this week’s BMJ seem to mark a new low in the erosion of patient safety in favour of political correctness. Since the 2009 BMJ head to head debate on whether the lifetime ban on blood donation for men who have had sex with men (MSM) should be lifted, the […]
Religion is based on dogma whilst science is based on evidence? No, actually each accommodates both.
Dr Evan Harris has this morning recommended that everyone read an article in the Guardian newspaper on Science and faith titled, ‘Faster than light story highlights the difference between science and religion’. So I did. You are welcome to read it yourself (it is very short) but its main message is encapsulated in the following […]
Landmark High Court ruling maintains legal protection for vulnerable people
The Christian Medical Fellowship has welcomed a landmark ruling by a High Court Judge that a brain-damaged woman should not have her life ended. Known as ‘M’ the 52 year old is in what is known as a ‘Minimally Conscious State’, meaning that she does have some degree of awareness; in effect she is in the […]
BBC report of Stuart Mungall case is factually inaccurate and seriously misleading
Retired actor Stuart Mungall, 71, has today been given a twelve month sentence suspended for two years for smothering his 69-year-old wife Joan Mungall with a pillow at their home in Tooting, south London. The BBC headline reporting the case, ‘Wife-killing Yorkie advert man walks free from court’, is factually inaccurate and seriously misleading but […]
More hype about embryonic stem cells from the BBC
The BBC today is running a new stem cell story with the grandiose title ‘UK medics lead Europe’s first embryonic stem cell trial’ as follows: Doctors at Moorfields Eye hospital in London have been given the go-ahead to carry out Europe’s first clinical trial using human embryonic stem cells. They will inject retinal cells into […]
Global annual cost of tackling non-communicable diseases only 1% of UK Bank Bailout
The BBC has reported on the World Health Organization’s plan to tackle non-communicable diseases like heart disease, which it says now pose a greater global burden than infectious diseases. The plan was published just after the conclusion of the UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in New […]
VIDEO: non-communicable diseases top UN General Assembly agenda
For only the second time in its history, the General Assembly of United Nations will be discussing a major global health issue and seeking concerted national action. For the next two days, the only gathering of representatives of all 193 countries in the UN will look at non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in an attempt to tackle […]
George Monbiot and the Guardian conspiracy theory
Guardian columnist George Monbiot contacted us at CMF last Monday to ask about our finances. The Guardian has recently linked CMF and other organisations to financial backers with mega-bucks and right-wing politics in the southern states of America. A chart across a double page spread headlined ‘Abortion debate: Dorries campaign urged to reveal how it […]
Maternal health is a domestic, as well as a global issue
Several stories in recent days illustrate the rather confused priorities of the British government towards maternal health. Yesterday the Royal College of Midwives reported that parts of England are facing shortages of midwives of between ten and 41 per cent – set against the background of a 22% rise in birth rate over the last […]