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

Mr. Geoffrey Lean, who reported the experiences he had while apparently in a coma in the Independent on Sunday ten years ago, may now be listened to with more respect. He wrote (10 Sept 06):

“It seems the stuff of nightmares. To lie in a hospital bed, unable to speak or move – not even an eyelid. To understand what people say to you, and not to be able to respond. Even to hear your fate being discussed, without being able to have your say. But it can be all too real. It happened to me. And last week research showed that it may also be reality for many patients diagnosed as in vegetative states, sometimes condemned as brain dead and beyond recovery… ”Ever since I recovered, I have had a uneasy feeling that some people were being denied food and water and allowed to die, knowing what was happening but unable to communicate…”

The New Scientist, 24th May 2006, reported an article in NeuroRehabilitation, volume 21, page 23: “A drug used to track insomnia has paradoxically helped temporarily rouse three men who were each in vegetative state following motor accidents, researchers claim. They believe that Zolpidem (marketed as Ambien) activates dormant cells in the brain.”

Clinical Ethics, published quarterly by the Royal Society of Medicine, in June 2006 printed an article by Professor Len Doyal, a member for nine years of the BMA Ethics Committee, advocating legalization of non-voluntary euthanasia.

“Proponents of voluntary euthanasia should support non-voluntary euthanasia under appropriate circumstances and with proper regulation,” he wrote.

It is interesting to speculate what “proper regulation” would consist of, but Professor Doyal claimed with justification that non-voluntary euthanasia in Britain is happening now.