bmj.com:

Print issue

This week

Are advance directives legally binding or simply the starting point for discussion on patient's best interests? Climate change: Is public health up to the job? Should aspirin be used for primary prevention of vascular disease in people with diabetes? To find out more about this week's BMJ print issue, read Jane Smith's editor's choice, Death and dying, and the print issue's table of contents. All articles have already appeared on bmj.com as part of our continuous publication policy.

Other linked articles:

New interim guidance on assisted suicide

Ethical debate: Are advance directives legally binding or simply the starting point for discussion on patients' best interests

Ethical debate: Legal advice

Ethical debate: Ethical view

Ethical debate: Medical opinion

A patient's journey: Multiple sclerosis

Research: Concept of unbearable suffering in context of ungranted requests for euthanasia

News

Camden PCT shelves plans to give contract to private company for new GP led health centre

A primary care trust's controversial decision to award a �20m contract for a GP led health centre in London to a private company has been put on hold after campaigners threatened legal action. NHS Camden has now shelved its plan to give Care UK Ltd a contract to open the big health centre in Hampstead Road near Euston station and has agreed to consult the public on whether the centre should go ahead.

More news published on 19 November:

Comment

Letting go

Retired doctor Alex Paton reflects on the weeks leading up to the death of his wife in November 2007, concluding: "My wife and I felt that it was time doctors stopped playing God and realised that some people just wanted to let go. At least we weren't forced to take her to Switzerland, a disgraceful alternative brought about because Britain will soon be the last country in Europe to accept euthanasia."

More views and reviews published on 24 November 2009:

Medical classics: George's Marvellous Medicine

Des Spence: Comrades in arms

Theodore Dalrymple: Smoking - out for the count

Comment

Opportunity knocks: health wins from action on global warming

Will health make it on to the agenda at next month's United Nations climate change talks in Copenhagen? Concerned that the links between fossil fuel energy use and human health are being overlooked, Ian Roberts talked to England's chief medical officer to find out what he thinks doctors and health services in high income countries could be doing. He also canvases expert opinion from Bangladesh, where many people are already experiencing the health effects of climate change

Other comment published on 25 November 2009:

Public health benefits of strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Ethics man: Wonder in medicine

Come dance with me in Ireland

Review of the week: The new black death

Research

Salt intake, stroke, and cardiovascular disease

A high salt intake is associated with significantly increased risk of stroke and total cardiovascular disease. Because of imprecision in the measurement of salt intake, these effect sizes are likely to be underestimated. The results of this meta-analysis of prospective studies support the role of a substantial population reduction in salt intake for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. The accompanying editorial says that the case for population-wide salt reduction is now stronger.

Education

Endgames

Endgames is the BMJ's free interactive quiz to help doctors prepare for their postgraduate examinations. Questions are made up of case reports and picture quizzes, providing you with a practical and quick revision tool on common topics rather than clinical rarities.

This week's Endgames articles:

Picture quiz: A case of diplopia and arm weakness

Statistical question: Random allocation II

OnExamination quiz: Headaches in children

Careers

Recruitment to medical specialty training (England) 2010

Competition for specialty training posts in England in 2010 will be extremely tough. So what can you to do ensure that one of the coveted training posts will be yours? Patricia Hamilton, director of medical education at the Department of Health, director of medical education at the Department of Health, talks about the application process and provides step by step guidance through the process.

Video

Remembering John Crofton

John Crofton has died at the age of 97. He pioneered the randomised controlled trial in a 1948 BMJ paper that looked at the antibiotic streptomycin to treat tuberculosis. Earlier this year he participated in a BMJ film to promote its online archive now being searchable back to 1840. In this short film, he talks to Colin Blakemore about the importance of randomisation and blinding, and how it has helped to make medicine more evidence based.

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