UK

Scores of UK patients die with bedsores, infections and malnutrition

Jared Yee | 03 February 2012

New figures show that 75 patients are dying in UK hospitals and care homes each day with conditions potentially caused by neglect. In 2010, over 27,000 people died with bedsores or infected wounds – an increase by more than 50% in a decade.

UK to consider three-parent IVF

Jared Yee | 28 January 2012

The controversial practice known as “three-parent IVF” has drawn one step closer in the UK with the government’s announcement of public consultation into its acceptability. The Wellcome Trust has also announced that it would allocate extra funds to expand research into the technique, which uses genetic material from 3 parents – 2 women and a man – to build a baby. The procedure, which currently banned, is a response to mitochondrial disease – defects in the small frameworks called mitochondria which surround the cell nucleus.

Research fraud troubles UK scientists

Michael Cook | 27 January 2012

“Dishonesty is common and institutionalized in medicine and medical research,” says a UK cardiologist, Peter Wilsmhurst, who has spent years trying to expose research misconduct and has reported more than 20 doctors to the General Medical Council.

Controversial UK commission backs assisted suicide

Michael Cook | 17 January 2012

The UK should legalise assisted suicide, says a report by a private group headed by former lord chancellor Lord Falconer.

UK to study guidelines for doctors who are asked to help in a suicide

Michael Cook | 17 December 2011

The UK body for regulating doctors, the General Medical Council, has announced that it is working on guidelines for telling doctors what they should do if a patient asks for help in committing suicide. There is an increasing number of Britons seeking to go to Switzerland to seek death at suicide clinics. There will be a public consultation early next year.

Celebrating the festive season in the UK

Michael Cook | 10 December 2011

A new scheme launched by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service has made getting the morning after pill as easy as ordering a pizza – but unlike pizza, it will be free.

Are 98% of UK abortions “technically illegal”?

Michael Cook | 10 December 2011

The keenness of British journalists to score exclusives and to run down the last details of stories are legendary – or at least they are now, after the News of the World phone hacking scandal. Which is what makes the ho-hum coverage of this week’s report on mental health and abortion in the UK so puzzling.

UK IVF clinic destroys donated eggs

Jared Yee | 03 December 2011

A UK couple are distraught after a blunder at IVF Wales in Cardiff. Chris and Lorraine were told over the phone on the evening they returned from IVF Wales in Cardiff that a batch of eggs had been accidentally destroyed. The couple had been trying to have a baby for seven years. Earlier this month, the clinic was slated for mistakenly destroying sperm donated by cancer patients about to be treated.

Elderly British abused, human rights violated while in home care

Jared Yee | 03 December 2011

The basic needs and human rights of elderly people receiving home care in England often go unfulfilled and physical and financial abuse happen too often, claims a report.

One in five IVF procedures are in women over 40

Jared Yee | 25 November 2011

More older women than ever are using IVF in the UK.

Top British hospital “tricked” into giving Italian woman abortion

Jared Yee | 12 November 2011

In a troubling offshoot of medical tourism, an Italian woman flew to Britain to terminate her 28-week-old pregnancy and then flew home to Rimini in north-eastern Italy to expel the dead foetus.

61-year-old IVF mum admits age limit should be 50

Jared Yee | 12 November 2011

When Susan Tollefsen, 61, became one of Britain’s oldest first-time mothers by using IVF at age 57, she was widely criticised.

Was Norway’s Queen Maud euthanased?

Michael Cook | 05 November 2011

You would think that having a personal physician would guarantee excellent health care. However, the trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor for involuntary manslaughter suggests that this is not necessarily the case. Prosecutors have declared that Dr Conrad Murray conducted an “obscene” pharmaceutical experiment on the pop singer. (The verdict could come next week.) Even royalty are not exempt. One of the sensational claims made in a new book about Norway’s monarchs during World War II, King Haakon VII and Queen Maud is that the Queen may have been involuntarily euthanased.

UK hospitals secretly use “do not resuscitate” orders

Jared Yee | 26 October 2011

Hospitals in the UK have used “do not resuscitate” orders secretly to bring elderly patients to an early death, an investigation has found.

UK increases compensation for sperm and egg donors

Michael Cook | 22 October 2011

Was the outcome of the UK’s fertility watchdog’s public consultation over compensation for sperm and egg donors ever in doubt? This week the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority announced that it was increasing allowable fees for egg donors from £250 to £750 per cycle and introducing a £35 per visit compensation for sperm donors.

Organ donors need compensation, says UK bioethics think tank

Michael Cook | 15 October 2011

Organ donors should have their funerals subsidised and women who donate their eggs for research should be paid, says an influential British bioethics think tank. In a new report, “Human bodies: donation for medicine and research”, the Nuffield Council for Bioethics argues that altruism should remain at the heart of organ and tissue donation -- but people do respond more readily to financial incentives.

Women as young as 18 seek Internet sperm donors

Jared Yee | 15 October 2011

While IVF was initially intended for women whose biological clocks had run out or who could not conceive naturally, some young women are seeking sperm donors because they have not found the man of their dreams.

Minimally conscious British woman must be allowed to live, says judge

Michael Cook | 01 October 2011

A British woman in a “minimally conscious state” should not have her feeding tube removed so that she can die, a judge has ruled in a landmark case. M, a 52-year-old woman, was struck down by viral encephalitis in 2003, and has lived with extensive and irreparable brain damage ever since.

Interested in a survey on race?

Michael Cook | 01 October 2011

“Race” is a hardy concept, but does it have any social or scientific validity? Throughout 2011, the Progress Educational Trust in the UK has been running a project, “Genes, Ancestry and Racial Identity: Does It Matter Where Your Genes Come From?” There have been three public seminars: “Is There a Place for Race in Biology?”, “Will Pharmacogenetics Lead to Colour-Coded Medicine?” and “Genetic Medalling”.

Embryonic stem cell trial to begin in UK

Michael Cook | 23 September 2011