[tt] [ccm-l] - End Of Life Decisions: Papal; questions for Mike DePietro

[Eugen Leitl]

----- Forwarded message from Dr Andrew Thorniley <andrew at aaybkt.demon.co.uk> -----

From: Dr Andrew Thorniley <andrew at aaybkt.demon.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 20:30:14 +0100
To: ccm-l at ccm-l.org
Subject: Re: [ccm-l] - End Of Life Decisions: Papal;
	questions for Mike DePietro
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 (Windows/20070728)

And just up from the UK more groups climb on the band wagon!

Muslim doctors warned yesterday that they would rather go to jail than 
allow patients to die in accordance with "living wills".

The new Mental Capacity Act allows patients to write the wills, 
instructing doctors not to try to save them if they become incapacitated.
It also allows patients to give "lasting powers of attorney" to a friend 
or relative who would be able to instruct doctors to starve to death a 
patient who becomes incapacitated.
Doctors who refuse to carry out such instructions risk prosecution for 
assault and a possible jail term.

However, the Islamic Medical Association is urging its members to defy 
the Act, which comes into force next Monday.
It fears the law will compel Muslim doctors to stop life-preserving 
treatment or remove tubes providing food and water.
"British doctors are worried today about the Act, which allows and in 
some cases requires food and water to be denied to 
mentallyincapacitated, non-dying persons," said a spokesman.
"In doing that, our innocent patients will die in pain and agony from 
the horrific effects of starvation and dehydration.
"We oppose strongly any court decision or power of attorney used to 
justify participation in starving or dehydrating anyone to death.
"All Muslim doctors, nurses and patients, expressing our Islamic 
beliefs, should oppose this inhumane Act."

Other religious groups have also voiced their opposition to the law.
Earlier this month, the Roman Catholic Church said doctors had a moral 
obligation to provide food and fluid to patients in a vegetative state.

Tube feeding has been classified as a "treatment" - not a necessity - 
since the House of Lords ruled in 1993 that doctors could end the life 
of Tony Bland, who was left in a coma after being crushed in the 
Hillsborough disaster in 1989.

Anthony Ozimic, of the Society for the Protection of Unborn 
Children-said the Act placed doctors in a serious dilemma.He urged the 
church to support health workers of any faith "resisting pressure to 
co-operate in the killingby-omission of their patients".

Mr Ozimic added: "Everyone, particularly Catholics, should be made aware 
that the church teaches definitively that no advance directive nor court 
decision nor power of attorney can justify participation in starving or 
dehydrating anyone to death."
A spokesman for the British Humanist Association said, however: "The 
doctor's first duty is to the patient and part of that has to be 
respecting their patients' deeply-held wishes in relation to their care.
"Doctors' own religious convictions should never be allowed to interfere 
with patients' rights."

The British Medical Association has also said it will not support 
doctors who deliberately ignore patients' wishes.



-- 
Dr Andrew Thorniley
Consultant Anaesthetist
Clinical Director of Anaesthesia and Surgery
The Hillingdon Hospital
Uxbridge

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Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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