Liverpool Care Pathway – An Unthinkable Error

The Romford Recorder headlined: Are they playing God?

The sub-line is: "Hospital stops food and medication for patients close to death".

That should read - "Hospital stops food and medication for patients chosen for death". After all, it is the doctor who has made the determination of the patient’s condition that it is terminal and that it is irreversibly so.

If it is ethical to consider withdrawing even the basic necessities of life – fluids and nutrition – is it then ethical to discount any form of resuscitation in any case? If the heart has stopped, the patient has stopped breathing then, ipso facto, the patient is dead. No, the medical practitioner – doctor, paramedic, first-aider – will employ CPR and any measure to ‘make that difference’ – unless there is a living will for which there is provision of access that requires otherwise.

In which case, it is the case that these particular patients have been chosen. They have been selected because certain criteria have been met and – but not necessarily – a ‘diagnosis’ of dying has been made. The ‘end of life’ pathway is a self-fulfilling conveyer belt to whatever it is your belief the next life holds, be that bliss or oblivion.

Ted Eden

 Cllr Ted Eden is quoted as saying: 

"Reports of the use of this pathway and its effects, including first-hand testimony I've heard, have been quite appalling. At precisely the moment [patients] need care, they are too often placed on what seems little more than a pathway to oblivion. In my view, this could easily be seen as playing God or even killing people off."

Yes, exactly that: At precisely the moment the patient needs care, that care is removed. In place of good palliative care, the patient receives a death sentence.

This following post is from the Care2 LCP petition  site:

23:40, Dec 02, Dr. Patrick Pullicino, United Kingdom
It is not scientifically possible to diagnose impending death as the LCP purports to do. The LCP is instead an assessment of the perceived quality of life of the patient by the medical team and as such is euthanasia.