Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=issue&id=6079
Peter Saunders relates the sequel to a horrific but iconic image. On 8 June 1972, a plane bombed the village of Trang Bang, near Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in South Vietnamese pilot mistook a group of civilians leaving a temple for enemy troops. The bombs contained napalm, a...
Richard Scott highlights the danger of losing yourself in your work. A weekend in a manor house in Derbyshire – the perfect setting for a reunion. Thirty years as doctors and all still in the NHS, bar one couple on their way to New Zealand. Walking and fine dining allowed...
Empowering Christian health professionals worldwide Bob Snyder and Diane Vescovi look at equipping healthcare professionals to share Christ with their patients. Every Christian health professional has a unique opportunity to improve their patients' physical and spiritual health. Many, however, feel frustrated by the challenge of integrating faith and practice within...
Glynn Harrison examines the impact of the self-esteem movement. 'You're special!' 'I am perfect in every way'; 'I'm a loveable person'; 'I'm powerful, I'm strong'; 'Hey, to God, I'm big stuff!' Every day millions of people kick-start their day with self-affirming statements like these. One study found that over...
John Wyatt relates his experience of caring for a relative with dementia. To begin with the changes were subtle. Unexplained anxiety and tearfulness, episodes of uncharacteristic blankness, irritation and anger with medics and their pointless tests. As the dementing process continued, my mother tragically changed and aged before our eyes....
Peter May surveys the role of ideology in the debate over homosexuality. The RCPSych appears to have locked itself into a 'born gay' ideology by ignoring the evidence to the contrary. A Private Members' Motion to regulate psychotherapy includes a highly illiberal clause outlawing psychotherapy for people...
Liz Croton looks at the dangers of addition for doctors. In 1998, a BMA Working Group report estimated that as many as 'one doctor in fifteen may be affected by drug or alcohol problems at some point in their career' (1). The Practitioner Health Programme (PHP) was established in 2008...
Women have a right to know the facts Donna Harrison examines the evidence for an abortion-breast cancer link. Studies examing the association between breast cancer and abortion often resort to errant methodology which obscures the scientific question they were purported to answer. Huge academic, political and financial pressure...
Help for Families and Friends Helen Poskitt Lion Books, 2013, £8.99 Pb 176pp, ISBN 9780745955803 Reviewed by Chris Williams, Professor of Psychosocial Psychiatry, University of Glasgow The author has gone to a lot of effort letting the sufferer – and their families and friends – be listened...
Adele Pilkington Onwards and Upwards, 2013, £9.99 Pb 84pp, ISBN 9781907509711 Reviewed by John Caroe, retired General Practitioner This is a collection of 60 short poems covering a range of everyday spiritual ideas and situations. These poems have evidently been written by Adele Pilkington as a personal expression...
A personal battle with mouth cancer Christine Dunningham Trafford Publishing, 2008, £7.99 Pb 104 pp, ISBN 9781425170806 Reviewed by Andrew Brown, retired Maxillofacial/Head & Neck Surgeon Mouth cancer is an under-recognised form of malignancy by many doctors. Patients, when given the diagnosis, may even express surprise...
For how long shall countries run after diseases? Nick Wooding, Teddy Nagaddya & Florence Nakaggwa Fountain Publishers Kampala, 2012, £10.00 Pb 322pp, ISBN 9789970251483 (To purchase email nickwooding@doctors.net.uk) Reviewed by Emma Pedlar, medical student in Manchester The 1978 Alma Ata Declaration saw primary healthcare (PHC) as...
Knowing God's comfort and strength through breast cancer Helen E Jones Verite CM Ltd, 2012, £7.99 Pb 160pp, ISBN 9781907636530 Review by Helen Sweetland, Consultant Breast Surgeon in Cardiff This is Helen's personal story of her diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer, including surgery and chemotherapy. It is...
Priests reflect on personal experiences of serious and terminal illness Jennifer Tann (ed) Canterbury Press, 2013, £16.99 Pb 244pp, ISBN 9781848252776 Reviewed by Claire Stark Toller, Locum Consultant in Palliative Medicine This collection of essays is written by Anglican ministers who have experienced serious or terminal...
From Cerebral Palsy to Casualty Consultant Diana and Victoria Webster Lion Books, 2012, £8.05 240pp Pb ISBN 9780745955957 Reviewed by Jean Maxwell, retired consultant in Palliative Medicine This is the story of Spratty, real name Victoria, who was born in 1965 with cerebral palsy and a...
When ideology drives science In July 1949, the New England Journal of Medicine printed an article by Dr Leo Alexander titled 'Medical Science under Dictatorship'. (1) In it, he explains what happens to science when it 'becomes subordinated to the guiding philosophy' of a political ideology. 'Irrespective of...
Anger: bad for health 'In your anger do not sin: do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,' warns Ephesians 4:26. The Bible is replete with warnings not to indulge anger. Now, new research cited by the British Heart Foundation reinforces age-old biblical wisdom about the...
Samir Dawlaty offers an imaginative remake. If I speak in the language of physicians or of surgeons, but do not have compassion, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the ability to diagnose and can fathom all symptoms and all pathology and if I...
Review by Peter Saunders, CMF Chief Executive With the recent decision by the Belgian government to allow euthanasia for children, the battle against legalised medical killing in Europe has sharply intensified. We will face two new parliamentary challenges in Britain this year. Lord Falconer plans to table his Assisted...
The church needs to address physical health Review by Steve Fouch, CMF Head of Nursing The state of the nation's health is not good. Starting with a WHO report that predicted a global cancer epidemic (1), we then learnt that the number of people living in the UK with type...
Primary healthcare is high on the post-2015 agenda Review by Steve Fouch, CMF Head of Nursing Last week the Sustainable Development Goals Open Working Group (SDG-OWG) on Health and Population Dynamics published its report (1) that will feed in to the Post-2105 development goal process. Its main points are that...
Review by Philippa Taylor, CMF Head of Public Policy The Department of Health has been steadily loosening its guidelines on abortion, without announcements, public consultation or discussion in Parliament. Our suspicion is this change is part of a process culminating in a nurse-led abortion service, predominantly in private clinics, paid...
