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Discusses a report which found that the British government concealed the damaging effects of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) from the public during the 1990s. Creation of a care fund for the patients with the human form of BSE, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and their families by the British government; Use of BSE-infected cattle parts to produce meat and bone meal for cattle feed may have caused the outbreak; Description of the government coverup, and lessons to be learned from the incident.

Reports that the United Kingdom's National Confidential Enquiry into Perioperative Deaths, part of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence, has found that the system is failing patients with a cancer, particularly those presenting as an emergency. Variety of expertise, poor compliance with recommendations, failure to collect data, and failure to run adequate multidisciplinary teams; Study that examined three aspects of cancer treatment described as cancer care, critical care services, and pathology; Method of the study.

Reports that Great Britain's Secretary of State for Health, Alan Milburn, has pledged to address health inequalities and shift more power to front line national health service (NHS) staff. Focus on improving health outcomes and encourage people to live healthier lifestyles; View that considerable resources are needed to have a significant effect on health inequalities; Question of how to distribute health resources.

Reports that the British high court has ruled against a request made by Diane Pretty to allow her husband to assist in her suicide. Why Pretty, who suffers from motor neurone disease, sought an exception to the Suicide Act; Implications for human rights.

Reports that Diane Pretty, a woman suffering from motor neurone disease, is filing a legal action against the Suicide Act in Great Britain for the right to die. Law and legislation concerning assisted suicide in Britain; View that Pretty's human rights are being violated by the government; Opposition to her case by a number of pro-life organizations.

Reports on health inequality targets announced by United Kingdom Health Secretary Alan Milburn that aim to reduce infant mortality rates and the number of premature adult deaths in the poorest parts of England. Gap between the health prospects of poor and better-off people in the UK; Specific actions which will be taken; Response of the medical community.

Focuses on reforms in cancer health care in the United Kingdom. Guidelines for cancer treatment which the government released in January 2001; Method of monitoring cancer care; Expansion of the Cancer Collaboratives pilot project to reduce the waiting time for cancer diagnosis to the entire country; Assessment of new anti-cancer drugs which the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) will oversee.

Reports that updated necropsy guidelines were issued by Great Britain's Royal College of Pathologists in March 2000. Issuance of the guidelines in response to public and media interest in organ-retention procedures after disclosures that organs were being used in research without parent's consent. INSET: Hospital pathology practices questioned in Ireland.

Reports on the proposals submitted by Great Britain's General Medical Council (GMC) to the government on how it intends to restore public confidence. Loss of confidence after medical misconduct; Proposals which seek powers from the government to allow GMC to suspend immediately doctors convicted of a crime; Comments from Donald Irvine, president of the GMC.

Discusses how Harold Shipman, a British doctor convicted of murdering fifteen female patients in his care. How he killed the women by injecting them with diamorphine; The suspicions of his colleagues; Shipman as one of the worst serial killer in British history.

Announces the decision by the United Kingdom Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to allow a clinic in London to use frozen eggs in fertility treatments. Comments from spokesman James Yeandel on approval of fertility treatments and disapproval of in-vitro fertilization; Guidelines published which outline the management of infertility in the UK.

Reports that in 1999 police in Great Britain began investigating allegations made by a former Royal Air Force (RAF) serviceman that experiments at Porton Down Chemical and Biological Defense Establishment, during the 1950s, left him with long-term illnesses. Details of the allegations made by Gordon Bell; Experimentation done with chemical weapons.

Presents warnings presented by members of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1999 regarding the shortage of transplant surgeons and donor organs. The effect of these shortages on the future of transplantation surgery; How the decline in the number of automobile accidents has contributed to the shortage of organ donors; Recommendations including the establishment of a National Transplant Service; The need for public awareness.

Reports on a decision by the British government to allow the postcoital contraceptive, levonorgestrel, to be sold without a doctor's prescription. Details of how the drug works by preventing fertilisation or implantation; Concern as to how the drug will be dispensed; Outlook for emergency contraceptive pills in the United States.