One of the challenges of teaching medical ethics is the need to continually connect with the wellsprings of philosophy and (whisper it) theology. Without these elements there is danger of a retreat to the pragmatic and utilitarian, or worse still to legalism (an undue dependence on the law rather than ethics), particularly in courses where […]
Category: Guest writers
Mit Philips: No time to quit on HIV/AIDS funding
Here in Europe, HIV has virtually gone off the radar. It has been reduced to a chronic but eminently treatable disease that affects relatively small numbers of people, neither a major threat nor a major challenge. In Africa, however, it is a completely different story. […]
Richard Smith: US health reform – good or bad?
Is US health reform a “monumental system transformation or a fatally flawed compromise?” This was the question addressed last night by Alan Gerber, doctor, economist, health policy expert, government adviser, and holder of five chairs at Stanford University (enough, pointed out by the chair of the meeting, for a one person dinner party) in the […]
Kayte McCann: Standing up for science
Are we standing up for science, or have we all become so laid back about it that the very basis of medicine and research are now lost to us? Earlier this week I attended the Sense About Science annual lecture at the Royal Society of Medicine in London. The lecture was entitled “It’s time to […]
Nick Foreman on road safety
At midnight on 31 January 1983 legislation was introduced to make the wearing of seat belts compulsory. Only 40% of the population were wearing them at the point and the change in the law was met with howls of indignation. But now if you or I get into a car the use of a seat […]
Julian Sheather: Neither playing God nor worshipping Her
And so scientists have succeeded in creating life in a test-tube. Hey ho. Another day, another biotech Rubicon behind us. But before we finally succumb to miracle fatigue it might be worth holding that fact in our hands for a while and wondering what it might mean. […]
Paul McMaster: Everythin’s gonna be all right in Haiti?
We arrive in Haiti during the second night after the earthquake, and the scenes of destruction and devastation are overwhelming. We are silent as we went our way through the street rubble and collapsed buildings to set up our emergency surgical facilities. An estimated 200,000 are already dead and a similar number of casualties lie […]
Louise Warburton: It seemed a small request
It seemed a small request; please would I phone a patient who had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and had been thinking of breast reconstruction. I had made myself available for such advice because several months ago, I too had to have a mastectomy and breast reconstruction. This would be the first of many […]
Mike Clarke: COMET features on International Clinical Trials Day
May 20 2010 was International Clinical Trials Day, a celebration of the clinical trial as a means of improving health and wellbeing. This was the sixth such day and it seeks to raise awareness of the importance of research to health care, and highlights how partnerships between patients and healthcare practitioners are vital to high-quality, […]
Martin McShane: Shared Care
Over the last year NHS Lincolnshire has instituted a clinical cabinet, a meeting where professionals from across the health and social care system meet to grapple with an important theme and give commissioners (PCT and Clusters) insight, advice, and direction. This month’s theme was shared care. From inception, our professional executive chair insisted that the […]