Law Weblog

Don’t fall out with your relatives….

Sunday 30 September 2007 at 9:17 am | In News | Post Comment

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 comes into force on 1 October. It allows the ending of life of a patient by medical intervention. Bluntly, whilst euthanasia remains illegal it will be possible to kill patients by starving them to death or ceasing medical treatment.

“Living wills”, in which patients can set down what medical treatment they wish to be given, or not given, will be enforceable in law.

Many law students know of the House of Lords decision in Airedale NHS Trust v Bland [1993]. Anthony Bland was in persistent vegetative state from the age of 17 to 21, the hospital supported by his parents asked the court for permission to discontinue food and water, the House of Lords granted the request, and after a few weeks, he was dead.

The new Office of the Public Guardian will investigate complaints about the law. A Court of Protection has been set up to settle disputes.

If a doctor were to treat a patient against their wishes it will be an unlawful act and he/she could be prosecuted or face a claim for compensation.

The Islamic Medical Association has followed the Catholic Church’s earlier response in saying that its doctors should break the law, rather than comply with so-called ‘living wills’.

After the Bland case, Catherine Roberts was in a coma; doctors in Bournemouth were going to pull the plug of her breathing apparatus. Twenty-six-year-old Catherine blinked at her mother and poked her tongue out just one day away from her planned death.