By Michael Cook The UK’s Supreme Court has ruled that court orders are not necessarily needed before withdrawing hydration and nutrition from a comatose patient. If doctors and the patient’s family agree that on-going treatment is not in his best interests, it may be stopped without applying for a court order. Lady Black, a Supreme Court …
Continue reading "Is death by dehydration in a patient’s ‘best interest’?"By Alex Schadenberg, International Chair – Euthanasia Prevention Coalition The Vincent Lambert case in Reims France may be changing direction after the Reims Appeals Court appointed Vincent’s wife, Rachel Lambert, as his primary guardian. Vincent Lambert became severely cognitively disabled in a motorcycle accident injury in 2008. His wife unsuccessfully petitioned the court to have …
Continue reading "Cognitively disabled French man threatened with death by dehydration"By Dave Andrusko Four years ago, we held our breath as Justice Baker of the British Court of Protection considered whether to extend the logic of starving and dehydrating patients in a so-called “persistent vegetative state” to someone diagnosed as being in a “minimally conscious state.” Thankfully, he said no. Just two months ago, a …
Continue reading "In landmark decision, British justice authorizes starving and dehydrating patient in a “minimally conscious state”"By Dr. Peter Saunders Editor’s note. We are posting elsewhere today a story about brain-injured patients who, despite predictions to the contrary, awaken. Typically, their families had been counseled to “allow” them to die–withdraw food and fluids. The following story is from a while back and addresses another category of the medically vulnerable: those with …
Continue reading "People with severe dementia should be starved and dehydrated to death to save money says BMJ editorial"By Wesley J. Smith The principle that all patients must always receive humane care is under pronounced assault in bioethics, Indeed, some bioethicists now argue that nursing homes should be required to starve Alzheimer’s patients to death–even if they willingly eat, and presumably even if the patient begs for food–if so instructed in an advance …
Continue reading "“Starve Alzheimer’s Patients” Pushed Again"By Wesley J. Smith Sometimes I get emotional whiplash. On one hand, we see very prominent bioethicists say that we should starve Alzheimer’s patients to death if they asked to be killed in an advance directive. Compassion and Choices teaches oldsters how to commit suicide by self-starvation. People like Peter Singer claim we should …
Continue reading "Alzheimer’s: To Love and Care or Kill?"By Dave Andrusko If you didn’t follow the terribly tragedy that was the unnecessary death of Terri Schiavo, it might shock you how much misinformation, snarky commentary, and relevant facts that did not make their way into Clyde Haberman’s 1,057-word-long Sunday story, “From Private Ordeal to National Fight: The Case of Terri Schiavo.” If you …
Continue reading "Nine years after her death, the “aftermath” of Terri Schiavo continues to be distorted by the New York Times"By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director – Euthanasia Prevention Coalition For many years I have stated that once death by dehydration becomes common people will react by demanding death by lethal injection. Death by dehydration is not a compassionate death. The Euthanasia lobby, who first promoted death by dehydration, now use the abandonment of vulnerable …
Continue reading "More than 1000 people killed by dehydration in the UK"By Wesley j. Smith Imagine you are in a hospital or nursing home with a brain injury. Doctors say you are “not there,” but you are. And you hear doctors tell your family to stop giving you food and water! Imagine what that would feel like. And imagine the suffering that would cause! Kate Adamson, …
Continue reading "Dehydrated Patients May be Aware!"By Alex Schadenberg, executive director Euthanasia Prevention Coalition The Liverpool Pathway is a guideline in the UK that doctors follow to ensure that people who are nearing death receive good pain and symptom management. There have been several studies and many articles, over the past few months, concerning the abuse of the Liverpool Pathway. The …
Continue reading "Abuse of Liverpool Pathway extends to dehydrating newborns with disabilities"By Wesley Smith Patients are not individuals in centralized healthcare systems. Rather, they become members of checklist categories on bureaucratic check lists. How else explain doctors putting nearly one-half of patients on the Liverpool Care Pathway sedation/dehydration protocol–in which patients are put in comas and denied sustenance–without bothering to tell patients of families. In other …
Continue reading "Sedated to Death Without Permission in UK"By Dr. Peter Saunders Editor’s note. Dr. Saunders is a former general surgeon and CEO of Christian Medical Fellowship, a UK-based organization with 4,500 UK doctors and 1,000 medical students as member. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There is an editorial in the British Medical Journal this week by a retired professor of philosophy titled ‘Sanctity of life law …
Continue reading "People with severe dementia should be starved and dehydrated to death to save money says BMJ editorial"