To doctors what began as a transparent human response has evolved into a series of deadlines […]
Medical ethics
Julian Savulescu and Peter Singer: Unpicking what we mean by best interests in light of Charlie Gard
We need to have an open debate about what we mean by best interests and how they are best served […]
James Brophy on Unanticipated Outcomes: Why Jerome Kassirer’s story is still so relevant
Although Jerome Kassirer is a familiar name to many physicians of a certain age, there is perhaps now a generation of young health professionals who are not acquainted with this […]
George Gillett: The case of Charlie Gard should make us question our attitudes to parental autonomy
We should learn from the success of the Mental Capacity Act, and consider introducing capacity-based assessments for parental autonomy […]
Daniel Sokol: Should doctors be saints?
Lavinia Woodward, 24, is a medical student at Oxford University. She is an aspiring heart surgeon with an excellent academic record. On 30 September 2016, under the influence of drink and […]
Richard Smith: Roger Bacon on ignorance and peer review
The Franciscan philosopher Roger Bacon (c1214-1294), who some regard as the father of modern science, argued in his great text Opus Majus that there were four sources of ignorance: Frail […]
Katharine Sacks-Jones: Face-down restraint has no place in modern mental health settings
Concern over women’s mental health is growing. Suicide among women in the UK is at its highest rate since 2005 and recent data show that young women are the highest […]
Abraar Karan: Revisiting health as a human right—does everyone have the right to be healthy?
Is health a human right? This question has been a point of global contention, and in particular has driven the highly partisan ideological views on health reform in the United […]
Richard Lehman: Advance decisions—unthinkable thoughts and evidence
Doctors see people die, often in circumstances that they would wish to avoid for themselves. Dying is a part of daily life on stroke wards, major trauma units, elderly care […]
Helen Wood: End of life care and intracranial haemorrhage
As a care of the elderly registrar currently working in a district general hospital, I am very familiar with the following story, and it is likely to be recognised by […]