Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=issue&id=78
In the last decade, mental health services have received much adverse publicity, particularly over homicides committed by psychiatric patients. This has given rise to the mistaken public perception, especially in the print media, that many psychiatric patients pose an increasing danger to other people. In fact the number of homicides...
Alder Hey is the latest in a series of high-profile 'scandals' involving the NHS in general and doctors in particular. The stockpiling of organs without consent highlighted in the 600-page Redfern Report[1][2], and especially Health Secretary Alan Milburn's criticisms of the NHS, which followed, have provoked a huge variety of...
The cloning of human embryos for research is now legal in the UK. New regulations under the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act will allow 'therapeutic cloning' to produce stem cells for use in treating degenerative diseases. The legislation was passed, by a 366-174 majority in the House of Commons in...
Thus states the affirmation in the CMF Handbook,[1] sentiments with which we are all likely to agree. Yet, how many of us as doctors have groaned at 'not another over-dose', or become annoyed with the drunken driver or the familiar abusive alcoholic. If our conscience catches us, we can readily...
The Western worldview has changed dramatically in the last two centuries. A summery of these changes can be found here Imagine the scene. It is a busy ward in a large teaching hospital. A patient has collapsed, is unresponsive, there is no pulse. A 'Crash Call' goes out. The nurses start...
The idea that a profession, such as medicine, might be a calling from God has little resonance these days. When not used in the traditional sense as a divine call to a religious life, the word 'vocation' is generally applied, in a dumbed down sense, to a regular occupation or...
The Morning After Pill (MAP) was first publicly debated in the mid-eighties. It was judged not to cause early abortion under the terms of the 1967 Abortion Act by the then Attorney General in 1983.[1] The view now held by the medical establishment at large is that pregnancy starts after...
Vocation The internet remains a rather strange place. Weeks and even months can go by when you become so used to it that you almost start to think that it is like the 'normal' world. Then all of a sudden you are confronted with how different it really is. Take...
Two and a half years ago, in August 1998, we held a small thanksgiving service for our Ruby fortieth wedding anniversary. Leading the singing in our family music group was our son-in-law Richard with his guitar. He was just back from the church camp and many remarked that he was...
This attractively produced little book has 72 pages of text and a further 25 pages of notes, bibliography and index. It is written with frequent bold subheadings that help to direct the reader through a rather condensed writing style. It uses a few classic cases such as Dr Arthur, Tony...
Fraser Smith is a Methodist minister whose work includes the offer of comfort to those who are dying and bereaved. This anthology of verses and prayers is interspersed with personal comments and poems which, being based on experience, ring true. The deaths touched on range from abortion to accidents to...
This is a compendium by ten Muslim authors whose aim is to enlighten non-Muslim health care workers about the religion, customs and world view of Islam, so that they may better understand their Muslim patients and so give more sensitive care. The book contains chapters on the origins of the...
Telemedicine is here to stay and with the falling costs and increasing capabilities of computers, imaging systems and the internet it holds real promise for missionary doctors in remote areas wanting to seek specialist advice, as well as those working in the NHS.[1] The NHS Plan[2] states that, 'The NHS...
In 1989, euthanasia was decriminalised in the Netherlands and in 2000 it was legalised. The headline in the British Medical Journal's news pages (BMJ 2000; 321:1433, 9 December) proclaims 'Netherlands gives more protection to doctors in euthanasia cases'. One is tempted to wonder about protection for patients. Euthanasia has been...
Vaccination programmes pose a dilemma; individuals face remote but sometimes catastrophic risks to ensure that the community presents no risk to them of the disease. If individuals fail to take that risk however, both they and the community will suffer. We cannot isolate ourselves from the community of which we...
Research is essential to advance medical knowledge and ultimately improve patient care. All doctors in training should be taught research techniques, have an opportunity to spend time in research under supervision and be able to interpret published data. Fraud impedes the advancement of both medicine and patient care (BMJ 2000;...
'...a rapid response unit for investigating doubts about doctors performance' was The Times' description of the new 'National Clinical Assessment Authority'(NCAA)(15 Feburary, p8). John Denham, Health Minister, described it as a 'new approach to the problem of poorly performing doctors'.[1] Formed as part of the implementation of 'Supporting doctors, protecting...
On 30 November 2000 the Government voted to lower the age for consent for anal sex from 18 to 16, by invoking the Parliament Act to overrule the House of Lords and pass the 'Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill'. Less than a month later, research released at a British Psychological Society...
Misplaced faith President George Bush's decision to set up a federal bureau for faith based social services has refuelled fears about children's lives being put at risk. A 1998 study in Paediatrics (101:625-9) has already documented the deaths of 172 children whose parents belonged to faith healing sects that forbid traditional...
'Since coming here,' said the prisoner, 'I've come much closer to God.' Opal's quiet words were convincing. In turn, she was touched to learn that opal gemstones owe their beauty to immense pressure, bearing down on fragments of silica in water. This pressure produces their scintillating colours and makes them...
We have had a large post-bag this issue, and accordingly most letters have been abridged. PVS Emeritus Consultant Anaesthetist, David Hill, questions Andrew Fergusson's terminology . In his editorial (Triple Helix 2001; Winter:3) regarding the failure of the Human Rights Act to protect patients in the Persistent Vegetative State from being killed by...
