Scotland's named person scheme rides roughshod over parents' rights

Community practitioners, or health visitors as they were known, have been a valuable source of support for UK families with children for many years.

Redefining mental health

Do we need mental health support to manage our personality quirks and eccentricities?

A leaflet popped through my door a few weeks ago, and given that the general election was only a few days away, I assumed it was another election flyer.

Mandatory reporting of FGM is a bad idea

The Serious Crime Act could undermine the relationship between professionals and the people they are trying to help.

The Home Office introduced a mandatory reporting duty in the Serious Crime Act (March 2015), believing it to be ‘an important step forward in tackling FGM [female genital mutiliation]’.

Close to finding the cause of SIDS?

There’s great news from Seattle about a potential cause of one the the cruellest medical mysteries: sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Three cheers for three-person embryos

On February 3 2015, the UK made history when MPs approved the draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015, with 382 in the House of Commons voting in favour and 128 against.  This meant that, in principle, they supported the creation of ‘three-person embryos’ through mitochondrial donation.

FGM Podcast by the Institute of Ideas

In this podcast I argue that the panic stirred up around 'Female Genital Mutilation' (FGM) has prompted a witch-hunt against doctors and parents.

Listen here

The FGM show trail: This case should never have come to court

The trial that exposed how unhinged anti-FGM crusading has become.

A jury in the UK found Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena not guilty of carrying out female genital mutilation (FGM) on a newly delivered young mother. Another man was cleared of abetting Dr Dharmasena. The jury of 12 concluded, in less than 30 minutes, that the evidence offered by the prosecution, representing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), was wholly lacking in conviction. All I can say is: three cheers for juries!

Read what I wrote in full here

The FGM Controversy

The debate at the Battle of Ideas October 2014, with Lisa Harker (NSPCC), Bríd Hehir (former NHS health visitor and senior manager), Dr Christine Louis-Dit-Sully (research biologist) at the Barbican, London.

https://soundcloud.com/institute-of-ideas/the-fgm-controversy