CentreRight

Clearing the way for artificial sperm

Parliament's most outspoken secularist and humanist, fondly known as Doctor Death, is at it again. Under the guise of compassion for the childless, Dr Evan Harris is heading up an amendment to the HFEA Bill to allow babies to be conceived using artificial human sperm by anyone.

Harris's amendment would mean that when the science can actually deliver artificial sperm in say 10 years' time, no debate in Parliament would be required in order to sanction their use. So not only is he trying to exploit the science before it's out of the test-tube, he's undermining the crucial role of Parliament to debate and assess the impact of a future seismic scientific advance.

GPs should not police the benefits system

E-politix reports this morning that Civil Service sick pay cost the tax payer in Northern Ireland over £25 million last year, with the Department of Social Development [akin to Englands DWP] topping the days-off-work chart at a staggering average of 18.7 per employee!

Some people do end up in bed with a nasty bug, and not just a cockroach. However, any GP in the land will tell you that every day they are put in the invidious position of being gatekeepers to Benefits by the current sick note system. Considering the cost to the UK tax payer of incapacity benefit was £12.5Bn in 2006-7, it's astonishing that occupational health is not being taken more seriously. Alan Johnson is still in delivering letters mode, and thinks that GPs can simply hand out 'well notes' instead of sick ones. This is no better. The GP should remain the health advocate of the patient and an occupational health advisor should be the one who decides about capability for work. Dr George Moncrieff puts the case well in this weeks British Medical Journal.

Barack, Borgs and democracy

In inviting CentreRight contributors to a champagne get-together this evening Sam Coates said we were like buses or Borgs in the way we all seem to post at once. For some strange reason Sam, I decided to google 'Borg' and 'all or nothing' tonight.... And the extraordinary thing is that the one of the top links was to a site on CentreRight-favourite topic Barack Obama - is he a Borg?! It makes compelling reading, for conspiracy theorists and insomniacs.

However this does raise the much more serious issue of transhumanism - the 'enhancing' of humans through artificial intelligence. You're not all talking about it yet, but in 2004 Francis Fukuyama called it the worlds most dangerous idea, so you will be. Barack might just not be a Borg, but if we continue merging technology and humanity [I call it the other inconvenient truth], will mere mortals be allowed to stand in Primaries? Or only the immortal....

Cultured pupils and hypertensive teachers

According to the news today even people sleeping can have their blood pressure raised  by flights going overhead, but this has been known for some time.

I'm more concerned with the Government raising my husband's blood pressure. As a comprehensive school teacher, the frequency of his outbursts at the 6am news when he hears another education announcement is increasing and I am sorely tempted to start my own pilot to monitor him for sporadic hypertension. Today was no exception. Amazingly, Andy Burnham declares secondary schools WILL be delivering 5 hours of high cultural education to pupils every week on a budget of £15 per year per child [no expense spared - this is clearly no gimmick]... on top of 5 hours of sport, new cookery lessons [from the non-existent domestic science classrooms] etc etc.

I simply have two questions. Will the Government get rid of the 17 forms my husband has to fill in before he takes his class to the theatre? Once I've proved the link between hypertension and Government announcements, can I sue?

Real Mosquitos are the ones to fret about

The Department of Health has today published a 2008 update of their 2002 health and climate change report. I don't mean to spoil your summer picnics, but heatwaves, water and vector [horrid flying buzzing things usually] borne disease and more microbes in our water will mean that we won't have to travel to Tangier to pick up our tummy bugs, sunstroke and skin cancer. 

There is a salient summary of the impact of ozone on health and vegetation here as well. Sadly however apart from a few scattered lines, the DoH report says precious little on how to mitigate the potential threats. Surely this is a major omission - the chance to connect the way we live to our health and the health of our loved ones?

So while you buy shares in Buzz-Off and check out the London Fashion Week for the latest in cycle-wear [I can't believe no one is doing this yet!], you will still have to visit sites like Green Guide to get your daily living tips.

Unbeliefable

Alex you were right, I'm sorry to have doubted you. I did think you were joking about the Archbishop of Canterbury resigning himself to any elements of Sharia Law in the UK.

When as Archbishop of Wales Rowan Williams was rumoured to be up for this post, AN Wilson called him a man of 'depth and vision'. This isn't vision, it's blindness. I thought we'd all agreed that the experiment in Multiculturalism had failed, yet here he is promoting it with some of the worst possible consequences for all the equality we hold dear. For a brilliant reminder on why we must never have Sharia Law in the UK, read Melanie Phillips article Liberalism v Islamism.

Postman Pat delivers junk mail

Postman Pat-Johnson delivered a letter to GPs today outlining his plans for extending surgery opening hours. Junk Mail more like. Once again in the 'do you want to jump before you are pushed' correspondence he refers to a consultation. This was a word missed out of the brilliant CPS 2008 Lexicon, but can be defined in nuLabspeak as 'pre-announcement of an initiative for comment where comments will be ignored; funded by the tax payer'. So whether our GPs agree to longer opening hours or not, they are going to have to provide them.

Is this what all local communities need? How would the DoH know? Even past authors of NHS 'reform' such as Paul Corrigan last week told the Health Service Journal that civil servants were completely cut off from the reality of front-line healthcare professionals. Yet despite knowing centrally imposed solutions didn't relate to local situations, Labour have persisted in Centralism.

A good local GP will know their patients, know what the community needs and what its priorities are because they have listened and built relationships. Unless and until healthcare professionals are freed to serve their communities based on local needs, local accountability and priorities worked out with the community, they will continue to receive junk mail from the SoS  - which costs patients and professionals alike money, excellence and progress.

Don't forget Afghanistan Women

There has been much in the press recently about the pressures on ante-natal departments in the UK with clinics now being held on Sunday afternoons. Yet another consequence of Labour's immigration chaos.

Although Wednesday's bleak Afghan Study Group Report barely mentioned health, it reminded me of the World Bank  report from last year on the plight of women in Afghanistan, highlighting in one chapter the terrible maternal mortality rates for women of childbearing age. Only 14% of women have anyone qualified in health with them at childbirth, and in a country where there are 94 women for every 1000 men, the pressure to have babies is immense. Women over the age of 15 are three times more likely to die prematurely than a man, mainly due to preventable complications of childbearing.

While tough decisions lie ahead for us in the UK if we are to tackle our own inequalities and pressures in maternal and child health, we need to remember that our commitment to Afghanistan must include more support for NGOs seeking to provide Afghan women's healthcare. 

Let's be radical and take the pressure off children...

Peter Cuthbertson wrote yesterday here about Chris Bryant's 'radical' proposal which will cause an 'avalanche of praise' from across Westminster. The 'new' idea? To hand out condoms to 10 year olds as the solutions to teenage pregnancy.

I'm all for radical ideas, but call me a stickler; I'd like to suggest that solutions need to be evidence based. And the evidence is that, as reported here , more available contraception has made teenage pregnancy worse in the UK. Not only that, but let's be truthful - condoms only reduce the risk of pregancy and sexually transmitted diseases, they are not infallible.

My radical idea is this: let's protect children from premature decisions, pressures and consequences. Let's protect them from the destructiveness of early and experimental sexual experiences. Let's allow them, through on going SRE in secondary school to develop the emotional intelligence to be able to handle relationships and adult issues. And, oh my gosh, this is radical, let's follow the Dutch example of involving the parents and family in sex education. Their evidence? The lowest rate of teen pregnancy in Europe.

Artificial life and premature hype

The thought of scientists creating artificial life is the meat of classics from Brave New World to Battlestar Galactica [a more raunchy West Wing in space]. The latest coverage from the labs as reported here without the hype and here with the hype is that we are on the brink of Artificial life.

I hate to disappoint you but it's going to be a long while yet, and those naughty headline writers should know better than to start stirring up the 'anti' crowds. If we're going to be able to build on the healing opportunities that science is bringing to us then let's inform the public with real hope and not repelling hype.

NICE advice on the obvious

Yes, NICE, that institution of wisdom and rationing, have today announced that they have conclusive evidence that exercise is good for you and we should be doing more of it. Taxes being put to waste once again.

The reponse from Sustrans, of whom as a cyclist I am normally a fan, was:

"This guidance should be the final argument convincing the transport sector to make walking and cycling the first priority for local trips".

Hmmm. Methinks there isn't much money to be made for the transport sector in cycling and walking.... bicycle parking meters perhaps?

Consultitis: Gordon's chronic tax condition

I received a parcel after Christmas that briefly got me excited at the thought of a late present from Great Aunt Maud. However, the package contained 80 booklets for me to share with my patients 'Healthcare for London: Consulting the Capital'.

I assume these booklets have gone out to every Primary Care practitioner in London - GPs, optometrists, dentists and pharmacists. That's across 32 PCTs when I last counted. Add to that distribution amongst NHS Hospital Trusts. Add to that the website, hard-copy, 'free' phone line and - yes it's true - roadshow costs. Add to that the nationwide polling being done by snail-mail.... Ipsos-Mori must be laughing all the way to the bank. With our money. And how many previous 'consultations' [by the way the nuLab definition of that word means to colonise, not to garner] have there been in the last 10 years, just on NHS reform? Even the Department of Health called the last consultation, which cost £1m, 'a sham'. Even if there weren't patients being denied aricept and lucentis on cost grounds, this would still be criminal waste.

When science goes beyond healing to enhancement

No one can demur at the stunning determination to overcome his disability and the astonishing speeds the 'Blade Runner', Oscar Pistorius displays when he sprints. For a double amputee to take part in a race against able-bodied men, let alone win, is enormously impressive.

However the decision that IAAF have made to disallow him to compete at the Olympics is the right one. Just as performance enhancing drugs are banned, so too should any bio-mechanical aid. It would open the door to bionic enhancements which would totally undermine the achievement and brilliance of 'mere' humanity.