Hot. Smelly. Busy. Expensive. Such were my friends' recollections of Venice. Not mine, however. I had visions of tall, ramshackle brightly coloured buildings teetering elegantly on stilts above the cool, clear water of quiet, meandering canals. The rose tinted memories of an eager ten year old perhaps (some 20 years...
As a medical student I attended a 'Confident Christianity' day conference led by Dr Andrew Fergusson and Dr Peter Saunders. The conferences train doctors and medical students in the art of 'dialogue evangelism', and over fifty have been held all over the UK and Ireland since 1989. To anyone involved...
The rate of unwanted teenage pregnancies in the UK is one of the highest in Europe at 8.2 per 1000, and one of the 'Health of the Nation' targets is to decrease this by 50% by the year 2000[1]. Effective contraceptive services are one way in which the government is...
This is to be my last editorial, as I am leaving to go on my elective before settling down to concentrate on the arduous prospect of finals. For my elective I am going to a secular placement in Australia, a choice that has been criticised by some of my fellow...
Medical science has a longstanding heritage of animal experimentation. Today we reap undoubted benefits from the efforts of our forefathers, with advances like the Salk vaccine against poliomyelitis standing tribute to the successes of the past. However, as technology improves we must continue to ask ourselves whether such stories are...
You are a young woman who is pregnant finally after years of trying. The pregnancy is a result of assisted conception and you are carrying multiple embryos.[1] The doctors tell you that it is possible that all the embryos will die unless you agree to a 'selective reduction' in their...
Introduction She was my first surgical patient; the Spanish lady in bed 16 admitted with acute biliary colic. Due to a shortage of patients another student actually `clerked' her whilst I just sat and listened, adding the odd constructive comment. We'd been told that our consultant generally regarded the social history...