Anglican bishops hit the headlines in August with a controversial ruling on the church's attitude to homosexuality. After much debate, liberal (mainly Western) bishops, were defeated by a huge majority at the ten-yearly Lambeth conference. Whilst having no legislative authority, its rulings are important for the world's 70 million Anglicans...
Saying goodbye is never easy. It’s no different when it’s a journal. My upcoming elective and then the looming horror of finals mean that it’s time to lay down the editor’s pen for someone else to take up. My time at Nucleus has been a privileged one. I have learnt...
The turnout was excellent. Around 600 packed into the Rattray Lecture Theatre with many others crowding the doorways and aisles. A further 200 watched on closed-circuit TV. A huge proportion were Christians. It’s difficult to say which group was larger, but it was a great improvement on Shabir and Jay’s...
'All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing', so said Edmund Burke. We can easily see our Christian duty as merely being nice and avoiding certain wrong things. Indeed, many would like it that way. However, if we remain silent, there will always...
In this issue we have made a concerted effort to tackle the issue of evolution in a way that is both helpful and honest. Although not strictly medical, we understand it to be of crucial importance to all Christian medical students. To many of our colleagues the edifice of Darwinism...
A recently published report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has suggested that fetuses cannot experience pain before 26 weeks' gestation. This received substantial media attention.[2] However, the report of the Commission of Inquiry into Fetal Sentience (the Rawlinson Report) suggested that pain may be experienced from...
The scale of the problem Dr Sandy Macara, chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) Council, has reported that the average graduating medical student leaves with a total debt of £6,758 - nearly twice that of the average student.[1] This figure has been increasing steadily for the last few years and...
Regular readers will note the change of format for this issue. This is not without purpose. Dionysius has gone to meet his maker and in his place we begin a new regular feature entitled 'Deadly Questions'. Beginning with abortion, this aims to equip us to deal with those tricky questions...
Constructing a moral framework within which to operate is never an easy task. Where should we begin: from our own reasoning, from peer group standards, from public opinion or ethical codes for medical practice? Dionysius in this issue highlights the dangers of all of these and points us back toward...
This edition of Nucleus has largely passed me by. It comes in the middle of pathology exams, making my title as editor feel a little dishonest! In fact, almost all of the editorial team have been afflicted with exams and much work has been pushed onto a few people. Thankfully,...