Liverpool Care Pathway: Not Nice

The NICE ‘end of life care for adults’ quality standards concern adults approaching the end of life. They are not intended specifically for the old but the old, by definition, are already ‘adults approaching the end of life’.

An article in the Glasgow Sunday Herald uncovered almost routine starvation in Scottish aged-care facilities and estimated that up to 50,000 patients were dying in that manner in British public hospitals each year.  Glasgow Sunday Herald, July 2010)

There is scant regard for their dignity in living; perhaps, all that there is left is dignity in dying…

The old will be scooped up in the net whether they are actually nearing the end of their lives or not. My mother was, thus, ‘scooped up’.

Step By Step…

Dignity in Dying only supports assisted dying if it is the patient's informed choice.

She did not so choose, but was chosen – selected for induction upon the Pathway.

Her opinion could not be respected; she could not be trusted to ‘make an informed choice’ 

…and just to ensure that she was deprived of that choice, her hearing aid was mysteriously damaged and she was doped into a condition of servile stupefaction!

By Step…

According to the Bible, there are twelve Commandments; according to Dying With Dignity, there are twelve Principles of Law Reform.

Her meds were all withdrawn – without her knowledge and without ours.

They said she ‘refused’ hydration but ‘consented’ to morphine.

In what manner she refused and in what manner she gave consent I cannot imagine. Her hearing aid was put out of action; she was doped into a stupor: how could she make her choices known?

They are well-versed in ‘interpreting’ what is the patient’s unvoiced intention…

By Step…

However my mother made her ‘choices’ known, they conveniently fell in well with the LCP protocols of hydration-withdrawal and instituting a pre-emptive morphine regime. 

The sixth Commandment states: Thou shalt not kill

The sixth Principle states: A request for euthanasia must be made freely, voluntarily and without duress and must be clearly expressed.

Are not alarm bells ringing?

By Step, By Step…

Baroness Warnock: Old people with dementia have a duty to die and should be pushed towards death.

 “If you’re demented, you’re wasting people’s lives – your family’s lives – and you’re wasting the resources of the National Health Service.”

It is impossible to doubt that there are living people to whom death would be a release, and whose death would simultaneously free society and the state from carrying a burden which serves    no conceivable purpose... - Permitting the Destruction of Unworthy Life’ - Rudolf Binding and Alfred Hoche (1920) [Trans. Walter E. Wright. Issues in Law and Medicine 1994] p.246

The old are old; they’ve had their innings. If they won’t move aside, they must be moved aside – May Lady Warnock’s words translate as:

Old people who are a burden have a duty to die and should be pushed towards death…?

By Step

As:

Those who are a burden have a duty to die and should be pushed towards death…?

Step by certain step, it is a slippery slope we tread.

Step By Step

My mother was not even afforded a dignified death.

My mother actually perished halfway between Caterham Dene and ESH, paramedics ramming tubes down her throat in frantic, vain attempts to revive her. This was reported to me in A & E in explanation of the very apparent bruising upon her person.

Not NICE!