Sarajevo on the morning of 29 May1992. The Serbian forces have surrounded the city. A Bosnian field commander reassures Esma Zecevic, the city’s chief paediatrician that the hospital will likely […]
Julian Sheather
Julian Sheather is specialist adviser (ethics and human rights), policy directorate, BMA.
Julian Sheather: Post Growth—why health is central to a sustainable economy
In his fascinating new book Post Growth, Tim Jackson, director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, asks a disarmingly straightforward question: how are we to live well […]
Julian Sheather: Time to address the climate emergency in the medical curriculum
I logged on to a fascinating webinar recently—medical education and climate change at the Royal Society of Medicine. As the Lancet’s 2020 Countdown on health and climate change put beyond […]
Julian Sheather: Covid has shown us the health impacts of our neighbourhoods—we need to build them better
Confining us to our neighbourhoods, covid-19 has woken us up to the impact of the places we live on our wellbeing. It’s midweek in Hoxton, early afternoon, and I’m here […]
Julian Sheather: Heavy Light—a journey through madness
At some point over a long, agonising winter, the writer Horatio Clare went mad. Precisely the moment his hypomania tipped over into psychosis is not clear, but fuelled by cannabis, […]
Julian Sheather: Covid-19 is also an environmental problem—why we must commit to one health
Pestilence and environmental upheaval are ancient bedfellows. It is likely that waves of the European black death were linked to Asiatic climate change. Fifteen years or so after successive climatic […]
Medicine under fire in Myanmar—now is the time for solidarity
On the first of February this year, Myanmar’s slow creep towards democracy came to a halt. The brittle scaffold of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s government was brushed aside. Refusing […]
Staff wearing beards and covid-19: trickier than it looks
We have lately been asked for an opinion on whether doctors who may be exposed to the coronavirus are under an obligation to remove their beards—and, presumably, any other facial […]
Coronavirus and the ethics of quarantine—why information matters
Isolation and quarantine throw harsh light on the complex tensions in public health, between the rights and duties of individuals and concepts of the public interest, says Julian Sheather […]
Julian Sheather: No more safe haven—Greece announces a wall in the sea
Consider the word refuge: a place offering protection from danger. It’s a powerful noun, strong connotations of safety and security, of haven or harbour. Consider somebody seeking such protection: a […]