Lynch, T. (2008) The Mental Capacity Act 2: patient advocacy and ethics. Nursing Times; 104: 43, 26–27.

This article discusses possible ethical and legal dilemmas in the interpretation of both the act and its code of practice.

In a statement today, Elspeth Chowdharay-Best, Hon. Secretary of Alert said:

"'Dignity in Dying' (formerly the Voluntary Euthanasia Society) has sent out advice with their new Advance Decision by which signatories refuse 'treatment' in hospital if they should lose capacity.

"They say correctly that in order to ensure that an existing Living Will is binding under the Mental Capacity Act 'you must write the following statement in the section referring to the refusal of life-sustaining treatment: The decisions set out in my living will apply, even if my life is at risk as a result.'

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Dr Jacqueline Laing, of the Human Rights and Social Justice Research Institute at London Metropolitan University, said of the Mental Capacity Act which comes into effect on October 1:

There are sound reasons to believe that the Mental Capacity Act, by endangering those who cannot speak for themselves, is incompatible with the European Convention of Human Rights and other international instruments. By requiring doctors, on pain of an assault charge, to dehydrate non-dying patients to death and even perform non-therapeutic research and tissue removal at the behest of unaccountable third parties, this Act allows the basest of motives to override the rights and safety of the most vulnerable.

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The Daily Telegraph (LONDON)

September 29, 2007 Saturday
Letters to the Editor

SIR - With the impending implementation of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) I feel some concern as to the potential for human rights abuses that it allows, in particular over the withdrawal of fluids and nutrition based merely on hearsay and the delegation of power to consent or instruct withdrawal of nutrition to third parties.

With the implementation of this Act, we will be condemning some of the weakest members of our society to death by dehydration. Working as a doctor in a large general hospital I have seen many people die. I have no idea whether patients in their final weeks can fully understand the sensation of thirst, but I do observe that they look more comfortable and at rest when having their hand held by a loved one, and show distress when being turned or moved.

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An excellent piece from BBC's "Look East" concerning the deliberate dehydration of the elderly resulting in their death.

Read the Original here

By Peter Saunders
Care Not Killing Alliance

The Care Not Killing Alliance has warned Parliament, the public and the media not to be misled by a report published today that downplays the risk to vulnerable people posed by the legalisation of euthanasia. The warning comes amidst fears that fresh attempts will shortly be made to legalise the practice in Britain, most likely beginning with Scotland, which is seen as a soft target by pro-euthanasia advocates. Dr Peter Saunders, Campaign Director of Care Not Killing, warned:

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DAILY MAIL (London)

Read the original here.

25 September 2007

By Jill Parkin

None of us likes to imagine such a terrible fate, but this much I do know: If I am ever in a coma I would like to be treated by Muslim or Catholic doctors, because if they're in charge, at least I know I will not be starved to death.

How extraordinary to think that in doing so - in the simple act of keeping me alive - they could be breaking the law.

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Read the original here.

By Simon Caldwell
9/19/2007

Catholic News Service

LONDON (CNS) – Medical ethicists in Britain said a Vatican document reiterating that it is a moral obligation to provide food and water to patients in a vegetative state will encourage doctors to defy living wills.

Anthony Ozimic, political director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said the document released Sept. 14 by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was "highly significant" for England and Wales, where the Mental Capacity Act will take effect Oct. 1.

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DAILY MAIL (London)

September 24, 2007 Monday

BY Simon Caldwell AND Daniel Martin

MUSLIM MEDICS SAY THEY WILL REFUSE TO LET PATIENTS WITH 'LIVING WILLS' DIE

MUSLIM doctors warned yesterday that they would rather go to jail than allow patients to die in accordance with 'living wills'.

The new Mental Capacity Act allows patients to write the wills, instructing doctors not to try to save them if they become incapacitated.

It also allows patients to give 'lasting powers of attorney' to a friend or relative who would be able to instruct doctors to starve to death a patient who becomes incapacitated.

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YOU CAN'T CALL THIS MERCY KILLING -- IT'S LEGALISED MURDER IN ITS CRUELLEST FORM

DAILY MAIL (London)
May 15, 2007 Tuesday

By A. N. Wilson

WHEN October comes, euthanasia will have become legal in this country. If that comes as a shock to you, it came as a surprise to me too.

Only when reading the report in yesterday's Daily Mail did I realise that legislation -- at present passing through Parliament -- is precisely a licence for families to kill their sick relations by the slow death of thirst and starvation.

Astonishingly, this radical departure from the existing state of the law is being brought in under the 'negative resolution procedure'. This means that the measure will pass into law automatically, and without any debate whatsoever, unless an MP chooses to put a spanner in the works and demand such a debate.

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