Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=issue&id=6145
In the aftermath of the Second World War, Britain was reeling from more than half a decade of conflict. Yet in that time, the nation had learned powerfully about how to pull together and support one another. It was perhaps in a desire to hold on to this spirit of...
Life and death are central to the study and practice of medicine. At the beginning of our studies we are taught the life sciences of embryology, physiology and biochemistry; to consider the workings of the cell and the beginning of human life. As we see patients, we learn how to...
Anti-malarials? Check. Medical French Dictionary? Check. Oxford Handbook of Tropical Medicine? Check. Right then, off to Madagascar. And so, on the 26 January 2017, I found myself climbing into a small twin-engine Cessna on my way to a town called Mandritsara in the north of Madagascar. I was carrying two huge...
A brief internet search on 'surrogacy' will lead to many heart-warming stories of successful surrogacy experiences, a plethora of inspirational quotes and countless pictures of happy families, overflowing with gratefulness to their life-bringing surrogate. But there is a darker side. Surrogacy is a complex, lucrative and global business. It is...
HULL New city, new job, new church... This is a familiar pattern for junior doctors, as training requires moving every few months or years. It's easy to feel unsettled and without anyone to turn to when life gets tough. This was my position when I first joined the Hullies in this...
The challenges of the leap from medical school to foundation training are well known: shift work, prescribing power, navigating the sometimes chaotic layout of a new hospital, traversing numerous IT systems, remembering countless log-ins and door codes, and coping with the challenges of short staffing (and the occasional resulting lack...
If you were to ask someone on the street one word they would use to describe Christians, what do you think they would say? Kind? Compassionate? Loving? I think if we are honest, there would be a mixed response. In fact, we might hear negative words such as 'judgmental' or...
I want a Christian psychiatrist: Finding a path back to mental and spiritual wellbeing Dr David Enoch Monarch Books, 2006, £8, 192pp, ISBN 9781854246844 Reviewed by Claire Wilson, a Clinical Research Training Fellow in General Psychiatry in London ' I want a Christian psychiatrist' is the premise for Dr Enoch's reflections and is prompted...
On my bookshelf in the '90s was a volume of poetry entitled The Age of Anxiety. It contained a series of poems (of varying quality) on the worries of the decade - AIDS, climate change, terrorism, economic instability and war. The title of that anthology came from WH Auden's epic...
Crowdfunding treatment Resource allocation is not a glamorous topic, but it can be a matter of life or death. We often pride ourselves in the UK that we have a health system that allocates funding according to need rather than ability to pay. That is unless you have a rare condition...
'Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba, Father.' So you are no longer a slave, but God's child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir' Galatians 4:6-7 At a recent CMF...
At the start of June, Health Education England (HEE) launched a return to practice campaign with Mumsnet. (1) The aim is to recruit at least 1,000 returning nurses into adult, child, mental health and learning disability nursing per year, and at least 100 returning nurses into general practice by March 2020....
In 2016, the State of Indiana passed the 'Sex Selective and Disability Abortion Ban'. This would have prohibited any abortion based solely on race, gender or disability. Following opposition from pro-abortion groups, a federal district court blocked enforcement of the law, declaring it unconstitutional. The State of Indiana appealed to...
The Supreme Court has ruled (1) that clinically-assisted nutrition and hydration (CANH) may be withdrawn from patients in prolonged disorders of consciousness (PDOC) without court approval, where the family and the clinicians agree it would be in the 'best interests' of the patient and the legal requirements of the 2005...
The latest abortion statistics from the year 2018 (1) show that abortion numbers have hit a ten-year high, with 205,295 abortions in England and Wales, an increase of 7,762 abortions from the previous year. A breakdown of the figures shows some particularly disturbing developments. For example, there has been a...
