The Court of Appeal has given its judgment in the Tony Nicklinson, Paul Lamb and 'Martin' cases, involving three physically disabled men who challenged the laws that make euthanasia and assisted suicide illegal. The ruling is unlikely to provide much comfort to Tony Nicklinson's family, who are continuing his fight for lawful euthanasia in the courts following his death in August 2012, or to Paul Lamb, who has taken Nicklinson's place in the judicial review proceedings. Part of Martin's appeal, which was argued on different grounds to that of Nicklinson and Lamb, was successful.
An international leader in bioethics, Peggy [Battin] explored the right to a good and easeful death by their own hand, if need be, for people who were terminally ill, as well as for those whose lives had become intolerable because of chronic illness, serious injury or extreme old age. She didn’t shy away from contentious words like “euthanasia.” In the weeks after the accident, Peggy found herself thinking about the title character in Tolstoy’s “Death of Ivan Ilyich,” who wondered, “What if my whole life has been wrong?” Her whole life had involved writing “wheelbarrows full” of books and articles championing self-determination in dying. And now here was her husband, a plugged-in mannequin in the I.C.U., the very embodiment of a right-to-die case study.
A 69-year-old woman has been found guilty of killing her former partner who was terminally ill. Joyce Evans strangled Colin Ballinger, 66, last July at her home in New Orleans Walk, Islington, north London.
A former pub landlord from West Yorkshire has become the first person in the UK to have a hand transplant. Mark Cahill, who is 51, had been unable to use his right hand after it was affected by gout. Doctors say he is making good progress after an eight-hour operation at Leeds General Infirmary. It is still very early to assess how much control of the hand will be gained - so far he can wiggle his fingers, but has no sense of touch. As well as being a first for the UK, it was also the first time a recipient's hand has been amputated during an operation to attach a donor hand.
In de eerste drie maanden van dit jaar werden in België 445 aangiften gedaan van euthanasie. ‘Een opvallend cijfer’, zegt professor Wim Distelmans (VUB), voorzitter van de Federale Commissie Euthanasie.
A government-commissioned report released on Tuesday has recommended that France allow doctors to “accelerate death” for terminally-ill patients who want to end their lives. French people overwhelmingly support medically-assisted suicide, with an October poll showing 89% in favour. Examining the case for medically-assisted suicide was a campaign pledge made by French President François Hollande ahead of his election in May 2012. Hollande pledged to act on the recommendations of the government-commissioned report, which will be referred to a national council on medical ethics that will examine the precise circumstances under which doctors can assist in ending a patient’s life. Draft legislation could be produced in France as early as June 2013.
Een 61-jarige man uit Lelystad krijgt geen straf voor het helpen bij het beeïndigen van het leven van zijn vrouw eind 2011. De vrouw had haar echtgenoot uitdrukkelijk verzocht om haar te helpen bij haar keuze voor euthanasie. Het bleef bij een poging omdat de man zijn vrouw niet met een kussen wilde laten stikken. De vrouw maakte in mei 2012 zelf alsnog een einde aan haar leven.
Terminally ill children are subjected to needless suffering amounting to 'torture' by parents who refuse to allow the withdrawal of treatment because of their religious beliefs, leading doctors have claimed.
A judge has ordered that doctors can switch off a young boy's life-support system even though his devout Christian parents pleaded for him to be kept alive in case of a miracle.
The husband of a pregnant woman who died in an Irish hospital has said he has no doubt she would be alive if she had been allowed an abortion. Savita Halappanavar's family said she asked several times for her pregnancy to be terminated because she had severe back pain and was miscarrying. Her husband told the BBC that it was refused because there was a foetal heartbeat. Ms Halappanavar's death, on 28 October, is the subject of two investigations. An autopsy carried out two days after her death found she had died from septicaemia, according to the Irish Times. Ms Halappanavar, who was 31 and originally from India, was a dentist. Praveen Halappanavar said staff at University Hospital Galway told them Ireland was "a Catholic country". When asked by the BBC if he thought his wife would still be alive if the termination had been allowed, Mr Halappanavar said: "Of course, no doubt about it."
DOCTORS made an urgent plea to the Supreme Court yesterday to help save the life of a Jehovah's Witness girl dying of leukaemia. Justice Richard White ordered the girl, 4, receive treatment, including a blood transfusion to which her parents had objected on religious grounds. Paediatric oncologist Dr Petra Ritchie, right, said without treatment the girl "will die . . . I would say in weeks". Dr Ritchie said that the girl, who was diagnosed with cancer of the blood and bone marrow on Monday, had a 90 per cent chance of survival if she received treatment immediately. Doctors had this week advised she needed a potentially life-saving blood transfusion but her parents objected on religious grounds. The parents' opposition prompted the hospital to petition the court saying that, without treatment, the girl would die in a matter of weeks.
Standards should never come into question, but it's clear to this Government that NHS administrative costs can be streamlined. Estimates suggest that savings of over £180 million could be delivered by 2015 by reducing the number of NHS bodies, including arm's-length bodies. And that is why I set out proposals to change responsibility for regulating fertility treatment and human tissue last week. The UK-wide consultation will consider whether the responsibilities of the regulators - the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) and Human Tissue Authority (HTA) - should move to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Health Research Authority (HRA).
Il est normal qu'en période électorale les sujets de société s'invitent dans les programmes des candidats. Il est en revanche toujours regrettable que, sur ces sujets majeurs qui engagent notre vision des équilibres humains, les propositions mélangent le flou et l'improvisation. Cette situation est clairement dangereuse lorsqu'il s'agit de notre conception de la fin de vie et de la mort. M. Hollande propose que "toute personne majeure [en fin de vie] puisse demander, dans des conditions précises et strictes, à bénéficier d'une assistance médicalisée pour terminer sa fin de vie dans la dignité." Le Parti socialiste a évoqué "un pas vers l'euthanasie", bien que le terme ne soit pas mentionné. L'euthanasie signifie la possibilité ouverte de donner la mort à un malade qui le réclame. Est-ce cela que souhaite M. Hollande . Si c'est le cas, pourquoi, une fois de plus, ne pas le dire clairement ? "Un pas vers l'euthanasie", c'est l'euthanasie.
The General Medical Council is launching its first ever guidelines on assisted suicide. The new guidelines will help the GMC decide if doctors should face a disciplinary panel if they are alleged to have encouraged or assisted suicide. A draft version is to be subject to a three month public consultation period. The GMC's chief executive, Niall Dickson said "the main message is that assisting suicide is illegal and doctors should have no part of it". The GMC, which is the regulatory authority for doctors, decided to produce the guidelines after the case of a severely paralysed man, which was highlighted by the BBC last summer. The man, given the pseudonym "Martin", told the PM Programme that he wanted to end his life and was taking legal action to try to get advice and help to do so.
Expanded psychiatric 'bible' will see more people needlessly medicated, experts warn. Mild eccentrics, oddball romantics and the lonely, shy and sad could find themselves diagnosed with a mental disorder if proposals to add new conditions to the world's most widely used psychiatric bible go ahead, experts have warned.
Two senior judges ruled it would be “manifestly unjust” to stop them helping him prepare a legal challenge to the law on assisted suicide – even if doing so could assist his suicide, which would be illegal. Once a keen sportsman, the man – known only as “Martin” for legal reasons – was left almost completely paralysed by a massive stroke three years ago.
Pregnant women who ask for a Caesarean delivery should be allowed to have the operation, even if there is no medical need, according to new guidelines for England and Wales. The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) states that women should be offered counselling and told of the risks first. Ultimately, however, the decision would be made by the mother-to-be, it said.
Tom Condliff, who weighs 22st, was not considered fat enough to have a gastric bypass operation by his local Primary Care Trust and both the High Court and the Appeal Court ruled that its decision was lawful. But less than a month after his latest setback, the 62 year-old from Staffordshire has been told that his latest “individual funding request” has been successful on the grounds of his exceptional circumstances and he will now be treated. He told the BBC: “I am very, very pleased about the PCT's decision but at the same time I am rather concerned that I haven't changed since the last time the request for IFR in September last year, was put in. “It was turned down then. So I don't know why it has been granted this time. “I am looking forward to being able to get out of the house and to enjoying myself and having a decent quality of life.”
Le Ministère public neuchâtelois ne fera pas recours contre l’ancien médecin cantonal Daphné Berner, jugée à la fin de l’an dernier pour euthanasie active. Même s’il n’est pas entièrement convaincu par les motifs retenus par le Tribunal de police, il souligne que l’acquittement n’a été prononcé qu’en raison de circonstances très particulières.
Survey finds 54% of doctors think the NHS should have the right to withhold non-emergency treatment A majority of doctors support measures to deny treatment to smokers and the obese, according to a survey that has sparked a row over the NHS's growing use of "lifestyle rationing".
Frances Swaine and Merry Varney are instructed by David Tracey, whose wife, Janet Tracey, sadly died in Addenbrooke’s Hospital on 7 March 2011. Following her admission to Addenbrooke’s, a ‘Do Not Attempt Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation Order’ (known as a DNACPR or DNR) was placed on Janet’s medical notes. Janet was unaware of the DNACPR and when she became aware of it several days later, she clearly stated it was against her wishes and that she wanted to be resuscitated. As a result the DNACPR was cancelled. Several days later however a further DNACPR was entered onto her records. We have issued a judicial review and human rights claim against the NHS Trust responsible for Addenbrooke’s and against the Secretary of State for Health seeking Declarations from the Court that the Trust’s policy on the use of DNACPR is unlawful, and for the Secretary of State for Health to issue national guidance for patients and their families to know their rights concerning the use of DNACPRs.
At 63, Pratchett — who has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's — speaks openly about causing his own death. "I believe everyone should have a good death," he tells NPR's Steve Inskeep. "You know, with your grandchildren around you, a bit of sobbing. Because after all, tears are appropriate on a death bed. And you say goodbye to your loved ones, making certain that one of them has been left behind to look after the shop." Pratchett has become an advocate for legalized assisted suicide in Britain, making him one of many voices in a global debate. Many oppose the practice for religious reasons or because they fear a slippery slope to involuntary euthanasia; but Pratchett has turned the legalization of assisted suicide into something of a personal crusade.
Australians in their 20s and 30s are killing themselves with the drug that euthanasia advocate, Dr Philip Nitschke, has promoted as the ''peaceful pill''. The Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine has found that 51 people in Australia have died from an overdose of Nembutal in the past 10 years. While the lethal barbiturate is only available for veterinarians to euthanise animals in Australia, Dr Nitschke has been helping people obtain it from Mexican vets and other overseas sources since the late 1990s.
The number of organ donors and transplantations fell last year in Spain, the country that leads the ranking in both and whose transplantations model was recently adopted by the EU. The decline—which signals a break in the increase seen in recent years—was caused largely by a sharp reduction in deaths from traffic incidents. Improved management of cerebral infarctions and a small increase in the refusal rate to donate organs among families whose relative has died have also contributed to the fall. The reluctance to donate is particularly widespread among the immigrant population. The number of organ donors in Spain dropped from 34.4 per million inhabitants in 2009 to 32 million in 2010, while the total number of registered donors fell from 1606 in 2009 and 1502 in 2010, reports the Spanish National Transplant Organisation. This reduction is the largest seen in the past 20 years.
A terminally-ill 13-year-old girl has persuaded a hospital to abandon legal action that could have forced her to have a potentially life-saving heart transplant against her will. Hannah Jones, who suffers from a rare form of leukaemia, told doctors that she believed the treatment was too risky and that she would prefer to enjoy her remaining days in the company of family and friends. But in complex right-to-die case, her local hospital began High Court proceedings to temporarily remove her from her parents' custody to allow the transplant to go ahead.
A 22-stone ex-policeman trying to persuade a health authority to fund obesity surgery started the latest round of his legal fight today. Grandfather Tom Condliff, of Talke, Staffordshire, who is 62 and 6ft 2in, says he needs stomach surgery to save his life. But the North Staffordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) refuses to fund a laparoscopic gastric bypass operation. In April, the High Court refused to quash the PCT's decision not to provide the surgery. Today, Mr Condliff's lawyers sought to overturn the High Court ruling in the Court of Appeal.
Switzerland has become the final destination of choice for citizens of nearby countries determined to end their own lives in peace. But a vote on Sunday could bring all of that to an end.
A Minnesota judge on Wednesday sentenced a former nurse to nearly a year's worth of jail time — spread out over the next decade — for helping to persuade two people, including a Brampton, Ont., woman, to kill themselves. William Melchert-Dinkel, 48, was ordered to serve 360 days total behind bars, but only 320 of those days will be served consecutively. For the remainder of the sentence, he will be forced to return to prison for two-day spells every year for a decade on the anniversaries of both of his victims' deaths.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has confirmed there will not be NHS funding in England and Wales for the anti-cancer drug Avastin. It is used to combat advanced bowel cancer and research shows the drug can give an extra six weeks of life. About 6,500 people per year may be eligible for the drug. But the health watchdog argued that at a cost of nearly £21,000 per patient, the drug is just too expensive.
All new IVF treatment will stop in Surrey as the NHS tackles a deficit this year of £125m. The board of NHS Surrey met in Cobham on Friday to look at how to tackle "serious financial challenges". A spokesman said current courses of IVF would continue and women nearing 40 would still be considered, with IVF policy to be reviewed next November. NHS Surrey is also no longer funding some treatments including acupuncture and some cosmetic procedures. Treatments which would no longer be funded included male baldness, facial blushing, tattoo removal and spinal epidural injections for chronic back pain.
A retired GP arrested on suspicion of advising a seriously ill woman on how to die will not be charged even though there was enough evidence to prosecute, the Crown Prosecution Service has announced. Dr Libby Wilson allegedly spoke to Cari Loder, a multiple sclerosis sufferer, in the days before she took her own life at home last year. Although the CPS said charges could be brought against Dr Wilson, an 83-year-old who founded the right-to-die lobby group Friends to the End (Fate), it decided it was “not in the public interest”. The decision adds further fuel to the ongoing debate over assisted suicide, making increasingly unlikely that anyone will ever be charged. Dr Wilson became the first person to be arrested in connection with an assisted suicide after the new guidelines were published by Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions. Mrs Loder, 48, killed herself at her home in Surrey after inhaling gas which she ordered over the internet.
A decision last week by Germany’s Federal Supreme Court to acquit a gynaecologist of illegal abortion after he chose to carry out genetic diagnosis on several human embryos and discarded those with genetic defects has stirred a debate about the possible need for a new law tightening the rules on preimplantation genetic diagnosis. The landmark ruling said that embryos created from in vitro fertilisation (IVF) can be screened for genetic defects before being implanted in the womb. The 47 year old doctor, who was not identified, brought the case to court himself in 2006 to clarify the legal situation. He had already been acquitted in May 2009 by a regional court in Berlin, but the prosecutor had appealed the decision.
A high court judge in England has ordered that doctors can force a woman without the capacity to decide for herself to have lifesaving treatment for aplastic anaemia. Mrs Justice Hogg made the ruling in the Court of Protection after an unnamed NHS trust applied to the court with the backing of the Official Solicitor, who looks after the interests of those lacking capacity. The judge said the 30 year old woman, named only as SB, who is detained under the Mental Health Act, has a serious psychiatric disorder and lacks the capacity to decide for herself whether or not to have the potentially lifesaving treatment.
The 30-year-old, known only as SB, could die without emergency treatment for aplastic anemia, a condition in which her bone marrow does not reproduce enough new blood cells. The Court of Protection has now ruled that doctors can restrain SB and force her to undergo the arduous but potentially life-saving treatment, which is administered through a vein in the heart and lasts for five days. SB has been detained under the Mental Health Act. Family Division judge Mrs Justice Hogg ruled that the patient did not have the capacity to make up her own mind over whether to undergo the treatment.
Coalition government promises to abolish respected regulator in effort to cut back on quangos. In the ethically fraught field of human-embryo research, Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has long been regarded as a world leader in regulating and advising scientists. But now the HFEA faces the axe, and researchers and politicians are chorusing their discontent. "I'm absolutely astonished at this," says Ruth Deech, an independent member of the House of Lords and former chair of the HFEA. "I think our standing in the world will be reduced."
A new law that legalises abortion on demand in Spain for the first time and came into force on July 5 could be suspended and delayed for months or years as opposition groups demand a judicial review. Two appeals have been lodged with the Spanish Constitutional Court, which has the power to abolish laws it finds unconstitutional. The appeals are from the conservative Popular Party—the strongest group in opposition—and the regional government of Navarre. The court has agreed to review the law and has set a two week deadline for the government, the congress, and the senate to register their opposition to the review. The Popular Party has asked for the law to be suspended as a precautionary measure until the court delivers its judgment. If the request is granted the law could be delayed for months or years, even if the judicial institution decides that the law is constitutional.
Sports players and fans are being targeted in a campaign to get more sperm donors to help couples struggling to conceive. The National Gamete Donation Trust wants to increase the number of new donors in the UK to about 500, from its latest figure of 384.
Detectives have been given another 12 hours to question a BBC presenter who said he killed his terminally ill lover. Ray Gosling, 70, was arrested on Tuesday morning after he told a BBC documentary he had smothered the man, who he said was dying of Aids. Mr Gosling's solicitor said his client had still not named the individual to police.
TV presenter Ray Gosling has been arrested on suspicion of murder by Nottinghamshire Police after he admitted killing his lover. The 70-year-old's confession that he had smothered the unnamed man who was dying of Aids was broadcast on the BBC's Inside Out programme on Monday. The Nottingham filmmaker said he had made a pact with his lover to act if his suffering increased. Police are questioning the presenter over his claims.
Today I am publishing the Crown Prosecution Service’s policy on encouraging or assisting suicide. When it passed the Suicide Act 1961, Parliament specifically required discretion to be exercised in every case and my consent is needed before any prosecution for assisted suicide can be brought. In the case brought by Debbie Purdy last year, the House of Lords understood that. It did not question whether there should be a discretion to prosecute or not. But, accepting that discretion, it required me, as DPP, to “clarify what [my] position is as to the factors that [I] regard as relevant for and against prosecution”.
Two daughters who sat with their mother for four days as she lay dying will not be charged with assisted suicide. Jane Aiken Hodge, 91, who had high blood pressure and mild leukaemia, held a “Do not resuscitate” card. She wrote a letter to her GP saying she did not want to be revived when she took an overdose of sleeping pills in June last year. Michael Jennings, a reviewing lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service, said that he was satisfied the death was an independent suicide.
A retired doctor has been struck off after giving excessively high doses of morphine to 18 dying patients. A disciplinary panel found that former County Durham GP Dr Howard Martin had not acted negligently but had "violated the rights of the terminally ill". He was cleared of murdering three of his patients five years ago. But he has been struck off by the General Medical Council (GMC) for "completely unacceptable" treatment of some patients.
An out-of-hours doctor who killed a 70-year-old man by injecting him with an overdose of a painkiller could repeat the error, a panel has warned. Nigerian-born Dr Daniel Ubani, 67, injected David Gray, of Manea, Cambridgeshire, with 10 times the recommended dosage of a painkiller. A General Medical Council (GMC) panel is holding a hearing into the case. The panel said Dr Ubani's actions had "brought the profession into disrepute" and questioned his clinical competence.
GPs are considering whether to abandon their involvement in a scheme to put medical records on a computer database. BBC News understands that talks are continuing to try to make it easier for patients to opt out of the system. Thirty million people in England have already been formally contacted about the computer record. Health ministers from the coalition government insist the rollout will continue.
Three women in Namibia are suing the state for allegedly being sterilised without their informed consent after being diagnosed as HIV positive. The women say the doctors and nurses should have informed them properly about what was happening. The rights group representing them, the Legal Assistance Centre, says it has documented 15 cases of alleged HIV sterilisation in hospitals since 2008. A march in their support is taking place in Windhoek as the case begins.
An author who has argued for assisted suicide has been appointed adviser to the Holyrood committee scrutinising MSP Margo MacDonald's bill calling for sick people to be given the right to die. Pro-life campaigners are angered by the appointment of Alison Britton, the co-author of The Case For Assisted Suicide, to her position as the committee's only adviser and sought assurances that she will be impartial. If passed by the parliament, MacDonald's highly emotive bill could see terminally ill or permanently physically incapable people deciding to end their lives legally. Gordon Macdonald of the pressure group Care Not Killing has written to Ross Finnie, the Lib Dem MSP who chairs the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill Committee, to express his concerns. "Alison Britton co-authored with Prof Sheila McLean, a book entitled The Case For Physician Assisted Suicide and a report titled Sometimes a Small Victory," Macdonald said.
HEALTHY, elderly people who are simply ''tired of living'' could be allowed to end their lives with a lethal injection under new euthanasia laws being debated by the Dutch parliament. MPs will discuss the proposals after campaigners collected more than 100,000 signatures in support. The influential Dutch ''Right to Die'' campaign, which has been active since 1973, has proposed training non-medical staff to administer a lethal injection to healthy people over the age of 70 who ''consider their lives complete''. Under the new ''vrijwillig levenseinde'', or ''of free will'', plans, the suicide assistants would be certified and would be required to make sure that patients were not temporarily depressed and had a ''heartfelt and enduring desire'' to die.
Doctors will be allowed forcibly to sedate the 55-year-old woman in her home and take her to hospital for surgery. She could be forced to remain on a ward afterwards. The case has sparked an intense ethical and legal debate. Experts questioned whether lawyers and doctors should be able to override the wishes of patients and whether force was ever justified in providing medical care.
FERTILITY regulators have triggered a new row over designer babies by allowing doctors to destroy embryos affected by more than 100 genetic conditions, including many illnesses that are not life-threatening. The genetic “defects” that can now be routinely screened out include conditions carried by a number of leading figures, such as Pete Sampras, the tennis champion, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, the Russian concert pianist and composer. In some cases it will mean the elimination of an embryo that has been identified as carrying genetic material inherited from a stricken grandparent, but which may not necessarily develop the same illness. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), has published a list of 116 inherited conditions that fertility clinics can screen out without requiring special permission.
The British Medical Association and the General Medical Council have already made it abundantly clear that they want no part in voluntary euthanasia becoming a clinical practice. Now the estimable Royal College of Physicians, the professional body representing over 20,000 physicians that “aims to improve the quality of patient care by continually raising medical standards”, has weighed in with a strongly worded letter to the DPP. “We would go so far as to say”, writes the College’s Registrar, Dr Rodney Burnham, “that any clinician who has been part, in any way, of assisting a suicide death should be subject to prosecution.” Dr Burnham continues: “The trust afforded doctors and nurses in particular gives their views considerable weight with their patients and the public. Clinicians’ duties of care entail active pursuit of alternative solutions to assisted suicide, not its facilitation.”
The Swiss Government is considering new laws that are likely to make it harder for foreigners to travel to clinics, such as Dignitas, to get help to end their life. Recently the British conductor Edward Downes and his wife, Joan, used the services of Dignitas. Unlike his wife, Sir Edward, 85, did not have a terminal illness. In June the Swiss justice minister, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, announced that two different draft pieces of legislation would be considered in parliament this autumn. "One is a complete ban on assisted suicide, and one is the introduction of stricter, clearer legislation," she said. Currently it is legal in Switzerland to assist in a suicide unless it can be proved that the assistant has a selfish motive. Opinion polls have always shown that about two thirds of the population have a liberal attitude towards self determined death. But the Swiss are opposed to commercial assisted suicide and the cost to the nation of investigating cases.
A one-year-old boy at the centre of a "right-to-life" legal dispute would not benefit from an operation to help him breathe, the High Court has been told. The child, known as Baby RB, has a rare, genetic condition that makes it hard for him to breathe independently. But a leading paediatrician, known as Dr F, said he was "not a candidate" for surgery to try to open up his airway. Baby RB's father is fighting a hospital's attempt - backed by the mother - to withdraw his life support.
A father whose son was born with a rare neuromuscular condition will go to the high court tomorrow in an attempt to stop a hospital withdrawing the support that keeps the child alive. Doctors treating the one-year-old say the boy's quality of life is so poor that it would not be in his best interests to save him. They are reportedly being supported in their action by the baby's mother, who is separated from his father. The child, known for legal reasons as Baby RB, was born with congenital myasthenic syndrome (CMS), a muscle condition that severely limits movement and the ability to breathe independently. He has been in hospital since birth. If the hospital succeeds in its application, it will be the first time a British court has gone against the wishes of a parent and ruled that life support can be discontinued or withdrawn from a child who does not have brain damage.
A woman who found out she had HIV when she was pregnant with twins was infected by her boyfriend who had known he had the virus for nine years. She was among four women unaware that Mark Devereaux, 41, had the virus when they had unprotected sex with him. The 28-year-old woman chose to have an abortion after discovering she had contracted the virus. Devereaux admitted four charges of culpable and reckless conduct. Sentence was deferred for reports.
A father who had been fighting to stop a hospital withdrawing life support from his seriously ill son has dropped his objections. The one-year-old, known as Baby RB for legal reasons, was born with a rare, genetic muscle condition that makes it hard for him to breathe independently. The hospital was backed by the baby's mother. But the move had been strongly opposed by the child's father at a High Court hearing. However, the father changed his mind after hearing medical evidence which suggested it would be in the best interests of the child if medical support was withdrawn. Lawyers for the health authority caring for the baby in intensive care told Mr Justice McFarlane: "All of the parties in court now agree that it would be in RB's best interests for the course suggested by the doctors to be followed."
A father who went to the High Court to try to stop a hospital turning off his seriously ill baby son's life support machine has dropped his objections to the move. The outcome has prompted a mixture of sadness and relief. For six days they had sat in the bland surroundings of Court 50 at London's High Court listening to others talking about their baby son's quality of life. A host of paediatricians, nurses, and experts went into the witness box. Many of them urged a judge to decide that this profoundly disabled 13-month-old boy should be allowed to die. It was, they said, no longer in his best interests to keep him alive.
The Dutch system designed to protect from prosecution doctors who are involved in the mercy killing of severely ill newborn babies who are judged to be suffering unbearably and hopelessly seems to be struggling to gain professional acceptance. The first case is only now being considered, more than two years after the system’s introduction. Research had estimated there should be 15 to 20 such cases a year (New England Journal of Medicine 2005;352:959-62). MPs learnt through parliamentary questions on 18 November that the first report of the decision to end the life of a severely ill baby had been filed in the Netherlands. No more details have been released. The expert committee set up to monitor the system has 12 weeks to decide if the doctor involved followed the correct protocol and whether it should recommend that he or she is not prosecuted.
The family of a man left severely brain damaged by a hospital trust's failure to diagnose meningitis promptly have been awarded £3.2m for his future care. Mark Thomas, of Walsall, in the West Midlands, developed an ear infection, which led to the meningitis in 2002. His parents took him for blood tests at Walsall Manor Hospital but the results were not reviewed for five days. Without the delay, Mr Thomas, 20, would not have been left brain damaged, Birmingham High Court was told earlier.
Guidelines on assisted suicide law will be published by the Director of Public Prosecutions this week to clarify when people are likely to be prosecuted. Keir Starmer QC told the BBC factors that would be considered included whether anyone helping in the suicide stood to gain financially. He said assisted suicide would remain an offence as the law was unchanged.
LONDON — Assisted suicide has been illegal in England for nearly 50 years. But, ordered by the courts to clarify the law, the country’s top prosecutor on Wednesday set out a list of conditions under which his office would be unlikely to prosecute people who helped friends or relatives kill themselves.
Yesterday, the Director of Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland, Sir Alasdair Fraser, issued his interim guidance on prosecuting cases of assisted suicide and urged the people of Northern Ireland to respond to a 12-week consultation on public interest factors in favour of prosecution and those against prosecution for this offence. The guidance is essentially the same as the interim policy issued yesterday by the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales.
Post-mortem examinations have been suspended at Wales' biggest hospital after inspectors found major problems. The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) highlighted problems in procedures, facilities and equipment at University Hospital of Wales (UHW) in Cardiff. The HTA said it did not take such action lightly, and Conservatives called it an "extreme step".
Patients with rarer forms of cancer may have been denied potentially life-saving drugs due to a postcode lottery, campaigners said today. A study by the Rarer Cancers Forum found patients faced a postcode lottery when requesting drugs that had not been licensed for their condition, with many people being refused treatment.
The 2009 Equality Bill will, if enacted, make age based discrimination in the provision of health care and social care illegal for the first time in the United Kingdom. In a speech in 2008, the then health secretary, Alan Johnson, said, "Old age is the new middle age. Health and social care services need to adapt to the changing needs of today’s older people . . . to promote health in old age and help older people to maintain independence and quality of life."
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has dropped its opposition to the concept of helping patients to commit suicide. The college has now adopted a neutral stance, neither supporting nor opposing a change in the law.
A longstanding ban on selling sperm and eggs should be reconsidered to address a national shortage of donors, the head of the Government’s fertility watchdog says. Payments to donors could cut the number of childless couples travelling abroad for treatment, Lisa Jardine, of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, told The Times.
A woman with multiple sclerosis has made legal history by winning her battle to have the law on assisted suicide clarified. Debbie Purdy, 46, from Bradford, is considering going to Switzerland to end her life. She went to the House of Lords because she feared her husband, Omar Puente, could be prosecuted for helping her.
Dignitas, which says that it is a nonprofit organisation, has not published its figures since 2004. Its rationale is that it is driven by its members (6,000 have signed up, 700 from Britain) and their desire to control the nature of their death. Yet even Ludwig Minelli, its director, admits that he rules like a “benign dictator”.
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