Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=issue&id=137
Herceptin is a big issue. Google brings up a staggering one million hits. It features prominently in the media as well as filling the medical literature; but also raises issues that we as Christian doctors need to face. As we enter the increasingly complex days of 21st century healthcare we...
The Warnock Report[1] was written in response to the birth in 1978 of Louise Brown, the first child conceived through in vitro fertilisation. It later became the basis of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (the HFE Act). Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is now involved in over 8,000 British...
Cervical cancer is a major cause of disease and death in women worldwide with over 450,000 new cases each year. Though in the UK, there are just over 1,000 deaths annually from cervical cancer, in countries that do not have any cervical screening programme, the death toll is much higher. ...
The date of 26 December 2004 will stick in people’s minds in much the same way that 11 September 2001 has – the images of devastation and suffering, the confused news reports, the gradual unfolding of the scale of the disaster as the days turned to weeks, and the initially...
How might we recognise spiritual issues in the life of a patient or colleague at work? Would we be competent to help? Might we misuse our powerful position as doctors? Would colleagues consider us out of line? Do politically correct masters exercise control over the way we work? Do we...
The suggestion that technology is constantly outstripping our ability to react ethically and morally has been a frequent refrain in recent decades. This is not a superficial phenomenon, but goes right to the heart of our deepest commitments as inhabitants of modern Western culture. How should Christians think about technology?...
John Martin reports on how two very different CMF members are serving people in dire need in Pakistan's earthquake zone Every day since 8 October people waiting at the outpatients entrance of Kunhar Christian Hospital read a sign bearing words from Psalm 46: 'God is our refuge and strength, an...
Crisis hit the crew of Mercy Ships a year after the launch of the charity’s first ship MV Anastasis 26 years ago. The crew found themselves short of food. Then a miracle happened. Suddenly 8,301 herring leapt out of the sea on to the shore. It was enough to feed...
Here is a story of two people:[1] a visionary innovator and a courageous implementer. David Morley’s heart began to be stirred with a concern to address poverty and health in the 1950s. The chance arose for a rare opportunity to undertake research on children growing up in the Nigerian village...
It is a great privilege to be physicians and pastors to the bodies and souls of people. At every phase of life are ways for pastors and doctors to share their faith. There are, however, special opportunities when patients enter life’s final journey and we need to be prepared for...
Author Sabina Dosani was staffing a BMA stand at a careers fair when she was overwhelmed by enquiries from International Medical Graduates (IMGs). She responded by co-authoring this book which is crammed with succinct information for both recently arrived graduates and doctors contemplating a move to the UK. The expected...
Barely a month goes by without an announcement of a new development in biotechnology. The challenge for Christians is to keep abreast of such advances and respond biblically. In Life in our hands, biological scientist John Bryant and doctor/pastor John Searle attempt to outline some of the issues at stake,...
Many of those who have worked in Africa and who have come face to face with the desperate, despairing young woman with a vesico-vaginal fistula caused by obstructed labour and have faced the daunting prospect of trying to repair it, will know the name Hamlin and know of the fistula...
We grow great by dreams… Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true. Woodrow Wilson, 28th...
I was personally both stimulated and encouraged by Daniel Strange’s recent Cambridge Paper on the subject of co-belligerence[1] as it has direct relevance for many of the issues we are facing in Public Policy at CMF. ‘Co-belligerence’is a political or military term referring to an alliance of different parties against...
On 9 November 2005 Lord Joffe re-introduced his Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill,[1] the third ‘assisted dying’ bill he has tabled in the House of Lords in as many years. If passed it will enable ‘an adult who has capacity and who is suffering unbearably as a result...
In June 2005 the World Health Organisation released its final interim progress report on the 3 by 5 initiative.[1] Set up in 2003, this was an ambitious plan to get at least three million people in developing nations living with HIV & AIDS on to life-saving antiretroviral therapy (ART) by...
Spirituality and health across the Atlantic More than half of the medical schools in the United States now offer courses on ‘spirituality and health’, up from just three a decade ago, largely because patients are demanding ‘more spiritual care’. According to a Newsweek Poll, 72 percent of Americans say they...
Son of a South African pastor, Richard Johanson was born in South Africa. His mother's obstetrician was Paul Bremer, an old friend of CMF, so much prayer must have surrounded him from the start. We met in 1984 when Richard joined our hospital team as a junior doctor, by now...
