People with severe brain damage are difficult to diagnose reliably, not uncommonly recover and are often much more aware than we think. Specifically: Four in ten people who are thought to be unconscious are actually aware One in five people with severe […]
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Dignity in Dying’s response to last week’s Supreme Court ruling reveals its real agenda
The former Voluntary Euthanasia Society, re-branded ‘Dignity in Dying’ (DID) in 2006, in order to disguise its real objectives, has always been quick to emphasise that it only supports a change in the law to allow so-called ‘assisted dying’. By this it means allowing mentally […]
Organ donation opt out plans in England – not nearly as clear cut as it might seem
All adults in England will be presumed to be organ donors unless they have explicitly opted out, the government has announced. The new plans follow a public consultation launched last December. Wales has had a similar opt-out system since 2015 and Scotland also plans to introduce one. New legislation which […]
Supreme Court rules that doctors can remove food and fluids from patients with permanent vegetative state, without going to court
My Radio Four Today programme interview on this case is here, and my interview with BBC Radio Five Live is here. Should doctors be able to withdraw food and fluids from severely brain-damaged people who are not imminently dying? And if so, in what circumstances? The […]
A 40th Birthday for IVF
On 25 July Louise Brown, the world’s first baby born via in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), celebrates her 40th birthday. 40 years after her birth it is estimated that more than seven million babies have been born as a result of IVF and other assisted reproduction treatments. Around 2.4 million assisted […]