WITHDRAWAL OF FOOD AND FLUIDS FROM PATIENTS

Early day motion 773, tabled 29 June 1999 by Joe Benton (Labour). Signed by 36 members.

That this House notes with concern that the British Medical Association report on Withholding and Withdrawing Life-Prolonging Medical Treatment makes no distinction between the effect of withdrawing life-support, such as ventilation, and withdrawal of food and fluid by tube from a patient who is not dying, and that the report fails to recognise that the former action will result in a patient dying from his or her pre-existing condition whereas the latter will result in the patient dying from dehydration and starvation caused directly by the doctor, nurse or other health-care worker removing the patient's feeding tube; further notes with alarm that these guidelines are intended to be followed in a much wider range of cases and conditions than Persistent Vegetative State, relying upon the advice of one independent doctor alone without the current requirement to make an application to the courts; notes that, following the decision in the House of Lords in the case of Airedale NHS Trust v Bland, which currently applies only to PVS patients, this could result in doctors and nurses being obliged to kill their patients by dehydration if the guidlines were ever to become accepted in practice; and calls on the Secretary of State immediately to circulate all hospitals and health-care workers to emphasise that the guidelines do not represent legal guidelines and should not be adopted.

Signatures by party: Labour 17, Conservative 8, Liberal Democrat 5, Labour/Co-operative 3, UUP 2, Plaid Cymru 1.