A GROUP of bereaved
relatives fighting to halt unofficial euthanasia in Britain's
hospitals is to take the Government to court under new human rights
legislation.
SOS-NHS Patients in Danger claims that the Government has failed
to uphold its statutory duty to protect vulnerable elderly patients
from doctors who deliberately withhold intravenous fluids to hasten
death. The practice, admitted by doctors and nurses to be
widespread, is said to have received tacit approval in many
hospitals in order to relieve pressure on NHS beds.
The group's legal action will challenge the legality of
guidelines to doctors, introduced last year by the British Medical
Association after consultation with the Department of Health. The
guidelines allow doctors to deny hydration and nutrition by tube for
stroke victims and those suffering from dementia, even when the
patients are not terminally ill, if it is thought to be "in their
best interests".
After discussions with Helena Kennedy, QC, SOS-NHS Patients in
Danger plans to take High Court action under the 1998 Human Rights
Act, which comes into force in October. The legislation incorporates
the articles of the 1953 European Convention on Human Rights and
will make it unlawful for doctors, hospital trusts and health
authorities to "act in a way which is incompatible with a Convention
right". Claimants have hitherto been obliged to take their cases to
the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Amid mounting concern about a "creeping tide" of unofficial
euthanasia, first disclosed by The Times in January 1999,
police and health chiefs have been investigating more than 60 cases.
In the biggest case, detectives in Derby have examined 40 deaths at
the Kingsway Hospital, in which nurses claimed that dementia
sufferers on a geriatric ward were starved and dehydrated. A file on
six of the deaths has been sent by police to the Crown Prosecution
Service. A decision on possible criminal charges is not expected for
several months.
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