The author of a recent editorial in the Student BMJ suggested that it is time for medics to abandon the 'pretence of morality' involved in the tradition of ceremonial oath taking.[1] He argues that morals are not fixed but change with shifts in cultural values, and that swearing a generic...
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.1 With this biblical exhortation in mind, final year students in...
In April Fiona Pinto and Joseph Biddulph, two pro-life candidates standing for election to the Welsh National Assembly, were arrested and charged with a public order offence after displaying a poster of a 21-week aborted fetus. At trial in September the arresting officer reported that, 'The general public demanded the...
For most people Hippocrates is a shadowy figure somehow connected to the ethical practice of medicine. They feel vaguely comforted by the supposed fact that doctors take a Hippocratic Oath of practice upon graduation. The truth is that very few take the Oath of Hippocrates; some take a revisionist version,...
No area of life has been spared the effects of the recent explosion in mass media and e-communication. Pornography is no exception and the increasing accessibility and pervasiveness of the pornographic image has contributed to the normalisation of ever more explicit and unusual material. At its core, pornography fundamentally misrepresents sex,...
When we're enjoying our studies, we rarely stop to ask why we're doing medicine. It's only when the course seems difficult, or when we've suffered a setback, that we question whether we should bother to continue. But whatever you currently feel, why not take a few minutes to think through...
Response to Enigma 5: You are a surgical house officer. An 87 year old lady has been admitted with an acute abdomen. She is too frail for surgery and is for supportive treatment only. She has been put 'not for resuscitation'. She is currently comfortable and your consultant has asked...
Set in China and Burma, this book tells of the suffering and triumph of a devoted pastor imprisoned to extremis. Brother Yun was converted at the age of 16 following the miraculous healing of his father, and the witness of his mother's faith. He had never seen a Bible; they...
'The Great Physician' is one of Jesus' well-known titles. But what would he really have been like as a doctor, facing the pressures of medical life? David Stevens is executive director of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, USA. He spent many years as a missionary doctor at Tenwek hospital, Kenya....
If my current obstetrics and gynaecology placement has taught me anything, it's the need for Christian medics to be firmly rooted in their convictions. I'd considered myself pretty clued up ethically: I believe abortion isn't right, I've worked through in my mind why I think this (I've even written for...
Horse clone Embryonic stem cells reach UK Human-rabbit embryos IVF on the NHS Internet conception Cheaper drugs in developing countries Homosexuality and the church Iranian conjoint twins Public health or corporate profit? Horse clone The world's first cloned horse, called Prometea, was born on 28 May - the only one...