How long can you put off seeing the doctor because of lockdowns?
One in five people avoided healthcare during lockdown in the Covid-19 pandemic, often for potentially urgent problems, according to a study PLOS Medicine. During the...
House of Lords debates assisted suicide—again
Baroness Meacher / screenshot GBNews Once again, the House of Lords in the UK is debating a bill to legalise assisted suicide. Lord Joffe introduced...
Spanish government tries to restrict conscientious objection
Right sentiment, wrong country: a demonstration in Buenos Aires in 2020 The Spanish government is considering measures to restrict conscientious objection for doctors. An editorial...
Pig kidney transplanted to human patient
NYU Langone Health / photo by Joe Carrotta The first transplant of a genetically engineered, non-human kidney to a human body was recently completed at NYU...
Non-invasive prenatal testing is becoming a growth industry
A fascinating article in the journal Annual Reviews examines the uptake of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in Australia, Canada, China and Hong Kong, India, Israel, Lebanon, the...
Benin and El Salvador go in opposite directions on abortion
Parliamentary committee votes / La Prensa Grafica It is odd to see how countries can differ so radically on the fundamental issue of abortion. The...
A mammoth resurrection
The thought of seeing woolly mammoths lumbering across the Siberian tundra is incredibly exciting. And Harvard geneticist George Church hopes to make it a reality. Cashed...
Prominent Australian assisted suicide campaigner dies
The Grand Old Man of assisted suicide in Australia, Dr Rodney Syme, died this week at the age of 86, after suffering a stroke. He...
Debate begins on NSW euthanasia bill
Parliament of New South Wales A euthanasia bill will be tabled soon in the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. Alex Greenwich,...
‘Fake news’ from Malawi about unsafe abortions
The London Telegraph published a confronting statistic about abortion this week: 12,000 women die every year in Malawi after a back-street abortion. “These women die like...
WHO calls for better palliative care world-wide
The topic of this year’s World Hospice and Palliative Care Day on October 9 was “Leave no one behind: Equity in access to palliative care”. The provision...
BMJ champions ‘assisted dying’
The editors of the BMJ recently put the prestige of their publication squarely behind “voluntary assisted dying”. In a long editorial with 30 footnotes, “Assisted...