Of course, this could never happen here:
In a statement yesterday Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor of England has warned doctors that they may face prison sentences if they refuse to starve and dehydrate patients to death. Criminal charges of assault could be laid against doctors or nurses who refuse to allow patients to die, even by removal of food and hydration tube.
The Labour government unveiled its new guidelines for doctors to follow the Mental Capacity Act that is to come into effect next spring.
The guidelines instruct doctors that a patient’s “advanced decision,” what is often called a “living will,” that includes a request for cessation of medical treatment must be followed even if it means the patient will die. To fail to do so, in other words, to take action to keep a patient alive, could result in criminal charges or heavy fines.
The government’s guidelines instruct doctors, “If you are satisfied that an advance decision exists which is valid and applicable, then not to abide by it could lead to a legal claim for damages or a criminal prosecution for assault.”
British courts, in conjunction with jurisdictions around the world, have determined that it is sometimes in the patient’s best interest to be dehydrated to death by removal of feeding and hydration tubes. In many parts of the world, including Canada, food and hydration is considered “medical treatment” and as such can be, and frequently is, withheld on the grounds that it constitutes “extraordinary treatment”.
One wonders why this same government is simultaneously jailing for life two individuals who neglected to provide such “extraordinary treatment” to an 8-year old girl, with the result you’d expect from the dehydration-starvation double-whammy. On the other hand, perhaps I should keep such thoughts to myself, lest I provide the post-natal abortionists with any nefarious new ideas.