British Section of the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life

Claire Rayner, the writer and broadcaster who was the best known advocate for Living Wills, told Penny Wark (The Times, 3 Dec. 03) that when last July she was taken to intensive care her family were twice told that she would not survive. "There were two moments when they could have - if they had wanted to invoke the living will - pulled out the plugs. They didn't - they gave me another go and I came through. So I no longer have a living will."

The Mental Incapacity Bill would make advance directives legally enforceable, with penalties for concealing one.

Dr. Frédéric Chaussoy, head of intensive care at the hospital in Boulogne, northern France, has been convicted of killing a 22-year old quadriplegic patient, Vincent Humbert, by injecting a barbiturate followed by potassium chloride. Since a car accident Vincent had been unable to speak and was nearly blind but had dictated memoirs by moving his thumb, entitled "I ask for the right to die."

His mother Marie had earlier claimed to have injected him with barbiturates. This put him into a coma. The doctor then turned off the respirator, but Vincent survived this too. (Sunday Telegraph 23 Nov. 03)

Dr. Chaussoy has appealed against his conviction, but the Alliance pour les Droits de la Vie has organised mass leafleting against euthanasia on 8 May in streets all over France.

In an interview with Wesley Smith (National Review, USA, Oct 23rd 03) Diane Coleman of Not Dead Yet commented on the front-page coverage of the Humbert story in the New York Times, which she said was "consistent with the paper's longstanding editorial policy that pretty much says 'better dead than disabled'. Yet when 200 people, mostly motorised wheelchair users, recently endured the hardships of a 2-week march from Philadelphia to the US Congress demanding home care services and freedom from nursing homes, the Times did not bother to cover it." The preferred attitude, as Rita Marker once said, is "Let them take poison."

"A ward sister tried to murder four of her elderly patients in a ruthless drive to free hospital beds, a court was told yesterday" (Nigel Bunyan, Daily Telegraph, 29 April 04). Barbara Salisbury "gave a 76-year old man an excess of diamorphine, telling him, as she did so: 'Give in, it's time to go.'

"On another occasion she instructed a nurse treating a 92 year-old, 'Lay him flat. With any luck his lungs will fill up with water and he will die.'

"'She justified her administering of diamorphine to an 88 year-old woman at Leighton Hospital, Crewe, Cheshire, with the observation: 'Why delay the inevitable?"'

Lois Rogers reported in the Sunday Times on 8 Feb 04 that Peter Ashworth, the coroner for Derby, was demanding a public inquiry into claims that over a three week period 11 patients in the city's Kingsway Hospital were deliberately starved to death. An inquiry has been refused, but the inquest may take three months.

"The inquest has been delayed by two investigations, one by the hospital, which found no evidence of wrongdoing, and the other by Derbyshire police, which sent a file to the Crown Prosecutor Service (CPS). The CPS ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute." Police are now awaiting the results of the inquest.

Relatives have rejected the health dept.'s offer to hold an internal inquiry. "Andrew Hughson said his 75 year-old father, also called Andrew, would vainly stretch his hand towards meals being delivered to other patients. 'We kept being told that feeding him would be bad for his general health, and he was too frail to tell us otherwise,' he said."

Dr. Claire Royston, clinical director of mental health services for the elderly for Bedfordshire and Luton NHS Community Trust, who will give evidence at the inquest, has concluded that the patients' deaths were "speeded up". She told Luton/Dunstable on Sunday "I didn't feel the way they had been looked after was in keeping with accepted practice at the time." Not quite within the GMC Guidelines, perhaps?

The Age (Australia) reported on March 31st that former nurse Leslie Martin had been found guilty in Wanganui, New Zealand, of attempting to murder her dying mother, Joy Martin, by injecting her with 60mg of morphine, but not guilty of attempting to suffocate her with a pillow. Mrs. Martin, who had bowel cancer, died aged 69 of "respiratory arrest". Another nurse reported that she had discomfort but was not in pain. Lesley Martin helped to form Exit New Zealand, affiliated to Dr. Philip Nitschke's Exit Australia, and published a book about ending her mother's life, which led to her arrest. Recently New Zealand lawmakers narrowly defeated a "death with dignity" Bill by 60 votes to 58.

"A biased editorial policy on abortion at the Los Angeles Times was taken too far when an entertainment section's review of Richard Strauss' opera "Die Frau ohne Schatten" was called "an incomparably glorious and goofy, anti-abortion paean." (Life News.com). The Times music critic, Mark Swed, had written "pro-life" but this was changed automatically, to the embarrassment of all.

• Shipman Inquiry Set to Rebuke GMC
• Illegal Organ Trade in Moscow
• Partial-Birth Abortion Still Defended In US Courts
• Unborn Victims of Violence Act Passed
• "Portugal Rejects Abortion Law"
• "Majority of Americans Pro-life
• UK Teenagers Say "Too Many Abortions"
• Russia Restricts Late Abortions
• German Doctor Suspected of Killing 250
• Palliative Care Doctors Oppose Assisted Suicide
• Recommended Reading

Shipman Inquiry Set to Rebuke GMC

In a letter leaked to Pulse, the Shipman inquiry solicitor, Henry Palin, has set out a catalogue of criticism of the General Medical Council under 17 separate headings, The Times reported on 2 Feb. 04. "The letter is a so-called 'salmon' letter, which gives organisations under scrutiny advance warning of potential criticisms... It contains the following. "It may be said that [the GMC] has leaned towards the preservation of a doctor's privacy and against the legitimate public interest in the conduct and competence of a doctor."

The Daily Mail reported on 24 Apr 04: "A surgeon who maimed more than a dozen female patients could have been prevented from practising years earlier." The GMC received warnings about Richard Neale's work in 1985, but decided not to take action against him. He was finally struck off for serious professional misconduct.

Illegal Organ Trade in Moscow

"Four Moscow doctors have been arrested for plotting to murder a patient so that they could use his organs for transplantation in an illegal trade which Russians fear is rife but which is seldom brought to court," The Guardian reported on 29 Apr 04. An incident at Hospital 20 prompted a widespread investigation of hospital practices.

Partial-Birth Abortion Still Defended In US Courts

The US Senate approved the Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act by a 64-34 margin on 21 Oct. 03, and President Bush signed it, but it is still being contested in the courts.

Unborn Victims of Violence Act Passed.

"It is now a crime in the U.S. to harm an unborn child while attacking his or her mother" (SPUC News, 5 Apr. 04). President Bush signed the Act into law on 2nd April; however, homicide is primarily a State crime, as opposed to a federal crime, so "Americans United for Life", say it is now important for all 50 states to provide similar protection for the unborn.

"Portugal Rejects Abortion Law"

(Catholic Herald, 12 March 04). "The ruling Social Democrats and their primary coalition partners, the Popular Party, voted today against bills proposed by left-wing parties which would allow abortion on demand up to the 12th week of pregnancy, and up to the 24th week in exceptional circumstances."

Majority of Americans Pro-life"

A December poll conducted by Zogby International, a respected non-partisan polling firm, confirms that by a 53% to 36% margin, the [US] public supports the statement 'Abortion destroys a human life and is manslaughter."' This was supported by 68 per cent of Republicans and 43% of Democrats. (Life News.com, 18 Jan. 04).

UK Teenagers Say "Too Many Abortions"

"A survey of 5000 UK teenagers has found that young people are more pro-life than their parents and are concerned about the sexualisation of society" (SPUC News, 11 Mar. 04). "The survey, conducted by Bliss magazine, found that twothirds of young people thought there were too many abortions."

Russia Restricts Late Abortions

(BBC News Online, 16 Sept. 03). "A government resolution on abortion, approved last month, is the first restriction of any kind on the practice since a ban imposed by the State was lifted in 1955. Alexander Chuyev, a pro-life campaigner and independent deputy in the State Duma, described it as a 'small victory."' Abortion is still unrestricted up to 12 weeks.

German Doctor Suspected of Killing 250

"A German doctor who is facing manslaughter charges for killing eight of her patients is suspected of systematically inducing the deaths of hundreds of others in her care," the Independent reported on 2 Mar. 04. Relatives of some of Dr. Mechtild Bach's patients at the Paracelsus in Clinic Hanover have asked for a full investigation. ►[Top]

Palliative Care Doctors Oppose Assisted Suicide

Association for Palliative Medicine News reported in September 2003' that 726 questionnaires had been sent out to members and 610 replies received. 92% were opposed to physician-assisted suicide, as well as 93% rejecting outright euthanasia.

Recommended Reading

Forced Exit (revised and updated) by Wesley J. Smith, ISBN 1-890626-48-1, price $17.95 from Amazon - Helpful information for campaigners against euthanasia

Looking for Answers by Anthony Cole, ISBN 1 84104 0657: price £17.50. from Amazon. Dr. Cole, a consultant paediatrician and the founder of the Medical Ethics Alliance, gives a cheery account of his life and a brief blow-by-blow history of the assaults on medical ethics in Britain since 1967; useful for reference.

I believe it was Charles II who when asked whom he trusted most in his kingdom replied; "my barber, because he has a knife at my throat every morning." Those who are given such power over another's life must first be trustworthy. That is why for 2500 years doctors have sworn to uphold essential principles, the most important of which is, in simple language: "I will not kill anyone." How tragic then that official guidance from the General Medical Council should suggest that this is not a universal principle, even for doctors. How right that Leslie Burke should want the GMC guidance changed, to be assured that his life will not be cut short by doctors. Did David Glass' doctors override his mother's firm refusal of consent to administer diamorphine to her disabled son, to save his life? - Clearly not. Dr Keith Andrews, Director of one of the country's foremost neuro-disability centres, speaking at an international congress in Rome, accepted the Airedale v. Bland decision to dehydrate and starve to death living patients in PVS. Rev. Joanna Jepson has to challenge the legality of late abortion for minor disability. Is not the greatest scandal of our time that a member of the medical profession should ever kill any child at whatever stage of life or degree of ability?

We note in the USA, the people supporting "Terri's Law" reacting against doctors denying sustenance to cognitively disabled people. Norma McCorvey alias "Jane Roe" is campaigning to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision in the US, and we learn that Sandra Cano alias "Mary Doe" also attacked the Doe v. Bolton decision. The reaction will come, yet at present in this country the Joffe Bill which seeks to allow "medical (sic) assistance to die" has been granted a select committee inquiry by the House of Lords.

The law is indeed a blunt instrument, and what fools are doctors who imagine that sheltering behind it can justify actions, which infringe the ethics of their profession. The case of R v. Bourne in 1939 was to abortion what Airedale v. Bland is to euthanasia. Mr Alec Bourne later regretted his part in opening the floodgates to abortion and campaigned against the 1967 Abortion Act. We venture to hope that Tony Bland's doctors regret what they helped to start.

A doctor's duty is to maintain health and prevent, alleviate or cure disease as far as he can, but above all, to care. Every patient is equally important regardless of size or shape, social position, colour, creed, politics or ability, but we should seek to serve especially the most vulnerable, the most deprived; the most severely disabled, the most seriously ill, those who suffer most, and those who are nearest to death. The medical profession does exist, but GMC registration is no longer sufficient identification. Doctors have to be guided by authority above that of lawyers and politicians, and be conscientious and open. That is why in the present state of ethical confusion, "Doctors who Respect Human Life" is vital.