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

“Emergency contraception has been heralded as the solution to rising abortion rates – it’s not” Professor Anna Glasier says in an editorial in The BMJ, quoted in The Daily Mail of 15th September 2006. Young people have been given easy access to the pills in pharmacies and in schools, and its use has doubled. But the abortion rate went up from 11 per thousand women aged 15 to 44 in 1984 to 17.8 by 2004.

Mr. Patrick Carroll, of the Pension and Population Research Institute, presented the findings of a new study of the effects of Government policy at a conference of the British Society for Population Studies held in Southampton on September 18th – 19th. He has given us permission to reproduce two of his graphs (Mr Carroll is an actuary and statistician).

“Sign on the dotted line and vote to die” said the Daily Mail editorial on 10th March 2006. “Make doubly certain by carrying a ‘kill me off’ card at all times. And rest assured: a Doctor who refuses to act as your executioner risks criminal prosecution.

“A macabre fantasy? Not at all. This is the reality of the Government’s Mental Capacity Act, arguably one of the most sinister laws ever foisted on the nation.”

During the debate on the Joffe Bill on 12th May 2006, Baroness Williams of Crosby said “… I have a letter from a distinguished nurse… saying that already under the terms of the Mental Capacity Act there has been a notable dip towards bringing the lives of some patients to an end. She writes from the hospital where she has worked for many years:

“All of a sudden we nurses aren’t allowed to pass NG tubes unless the Consultant has approved it. This is just a new protocol since The Mental Capacity Act.”

She goes on to say that she has been forbidden by consultants from sustaining life on the part of patients who have not asked to die. This is the slippery slope in practice…”

In the Nursing Times of 28th March 2006 Richard Staines wrote: “Despite the legal reassurances, nurses are nervous. They fear the new law will damage their relationships with patients as it represents a major cultural shift in the concept of care.”

“Solicitors fear lasting power of attorney will cause mental capacity confusion”, was a headline in the Law Society Gazette, 1st May 2006. “Under the current regime, a registered EPA provides confirmation that the person has lost capacity and their donee can legally take over their property and financial affairs. Under the new system, capacity must be assessed in relation to a particular decision, at the time the decision needs to be made, and not the person’s capacity to make decisions generally.” The Society foresees that this will make difficulties for banking staff.

The article finally points out: “Unlike EDA’s, LPA’s can extend to personal welfare matters, as well as property and financial affairs, including end-of-life decisions.”

“New courts with unprecedented powers of life and death over hospital patients will be given powers to sit in secret, ministers have declared” (Daily Mail 13th August 2006). “This decision means the first British court in 40 years to have the right to take life can sit behind closed doors if a judge thinks the proceedings should not be made public.”

“Robert Whelan of the Civitas think tank said ‘It will allow the courts to do anything and everything and nobody will ever find out.’ Disputes over the power of attorney that allows a patient to give someone else the right to kill them will also be heard in the Court of Protection.” The Court will sit in several major cities.

Radcliffes Le Brasseur published a report by Andrew Parsons on 8th August 2006 on the Government’s response to consultation on the conflict between the Mental Capacity Act and the European Court of Human Rights decision in the ‘Bournewood’ case, involving mental health and deprivation of liberty.

“The Government has already announced that it proposes to address these issues by amending the Mental Capacity Act… Mandatory consultation with the relatives, friends and carers will be required.

“The Government does not intend to provide a clear definition of ‘deprivation of liberty’, rather the Code of Practice will provide detailed guidance…

“Appeals against deprivation of liberty may be made to the Court of Protection.”

A correspondent writes:

Dr Tom Stuttaford in The Oldie (October 2005) wrote that a reader from Scotland “asks why death from dehydration was described as a terrible death in a TV documentary about those who died when Albert Speer was in charge of the workers who manufactured V2 rockets in Nordhausen, whereas it is now presented as a merciful release for our own elderly relatives.

“If food and water are withdrawn from an elderly, possible terminally ill patient, and other drugs are not given to hide their apparent distress, quite apart from their sore, parched lips, tongue and mouth, their end is a very unpleasant sight…”

“Australia will have the world’s first dedicated adult stem cell research centre following the announcement of a $22 million grant to Queensland’s Griffith University,” said Nationals’ Leader in the Senate, Senator Ron Boswell (Endeavour Forum Newsletter No. 3, July 2006). “Cells from the nose can be grown into nerve, heart, liver, kidney and muscle cells. The Griffith team are already using their established cell line populations to investigate Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, Motor Neurone disease, mitochondrial diseases and epilepsy.”