Along with this change, we thought it appropriate to take stock and consider whether the whole layout could be improved. As a result, shorter articles now follow the editorial so that readers flicking through will catch a range of issues. The News Review comes next, then longer articles and finally Deadly Questions with the other regular features.
One particularly significant development has been the rapid growth of the News Review, almost doubling in size since its conception a year ago. Of course it is only natural to expand a successful feature yet there does seem to have been a significant increase in the volume of news that bears relevance to our readership.
Huge technological advances are occurring in a moral graveyard where the ethical codes of yesteryear are simply rewritten in the face of changing public opinion. The Declaration of Geneva is a poignant example. Where doctors once promised to have the "utmost respect for human life from the time of conception", they now pledge to respect it "from its beginning". Not surprisingly the definition of life's beginning is sufficiently hazy to allow the abortion lobby unprecedented freedoms. Having cut itself loose from the anchor of God's word, the modern medical profession finds itself adrift in the ocean. Here, each new gust of technology is free to drive it still further from land.
In this godless age, we can gain some insight into the word of the Lord to Malachi, as more and more we also "see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not" (Mal 3:18).
2,600 years ago Ezekiel spoke to the nation of Israel whose sins were on the point of tearing her apart. At that time, God looked for someone to stand before him in the gap, averting the looming destruction (Ezk 22:30). Today, as Christians in medicine, we face a similar call. It is up to us to respond.
