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Dr Barry Miller, former Dean, Faculty of Pain Medicine looks at assisted dying and why this is such a complex topic.

Dr Anjum Goth shares a very personal story of her stillbirth experience. 1 in 225 foetuses die before or during delivery in the UK each year. A third of these are term babies – born at 37 weeks or beyond – who were considered healthy before their death.

At the time of writing this article we can be fairly confident that we have left the worst of the pandemic behind us. However, the NHS now faces the challenge of tackling spiralling waiting times for elective surgery.

Let’s consider some real patients who were invited to prehabilitation (‘prehab’) clinic for colorectal cancer surgery (names anonymised).

Anaesthetists are familiar with the ‘Schimmlebusch Mask’. This article evolves from Arusha, Tanganyika and a small boy’s memory of a white mask descending over his face circa 1963, having fallen while climbing the household log heap.