Liverpool Care Pathway - What Have We Come To...?

When we must defend the right to life? When we must show that our life may yet be worthy of life, that we are worth fighting for, that they should not give up on us?

With the introduction of the LCP, killing has become a ‘legal’ therapy!

The concern to respect the wishes of the living and of those who wish to live has become second to that of the dying and those who wish to die.

The right to life and the desire to preserve life has been overtaken by the right to death and the desire to promote death as a preferable outcome.

The Death Cult has seized power in this land. They wish to impose the right to die and to deny the right to live. 

The Quislings have taken charge. It is their right to decide our fate. They do not admire bravery in the face of insurmountable odds. They prefer it that we just lay down and die, that we submit rather than struggle to live.

Steven Thorpe was declared brain dead. Steven’s family refused to give up. Despite four specialists maintaining there was no hope, they refused to switch off life-support and insisted on another opinion. They would not give up. That decision and persistence by Steven’s family saved his life.

Fortunately for Steven, he was just 17. Such matters do weigh in your favour when medical decisions are being taken.

In Oklahoma,

The law prohibits health care providers from making medical decisions based on the assumption that “extending the life of an elderly, disabled, or terminally ill individual (is) of lower value than extending the life of an individual who is younger, non-disabled, or not terminally ill.”  - KHN

In the NHS, there is an unwritten law supporting this perspective.

The self-appointed demigods deem it their right and prerogative to make value judgements upon our quality of life.

Like little Neros, they give us the the thumbs up or the thumbs down to live or to die.

Frustrated playwrights, they will write us off, for we are but characters cast upon their page; it is for them, they say, to determine our worth and salt.

Value judgements of another's life should not be the domain of the doctor; it is not the place of medical staff – neither State appointee, nor for anyone else – to say that this is a life not worthy of life, either by comparison or degree, nor by absolute definition.

This is not the 1930s. This is not Nazi Germany. We must never go there again.

This is Liverpool Echo –

The widow of a man at the centre of a right to life battle hopes to overturn a decision that allowed doctors to withhold treatment from him.

May James, from Fazakerley, took her case to the highest court of appeal The Supreme Court of Appeal today, trying to get a previous decision over her late husband’s care torn up.

In December, Fazakerley Hospital won a case against David James’ family, giving them to right to withhold lifesaving treatments.

The dad-of-three, who was a well-known musician in Liverpool, died 10 days later of a massive heart attack.

But Mrs James has always been determined to get the decision quashed because it sets a precedent to other hospitals who can call on the decision when faced with similar disputes with families.

Speaking after day one of her two-day appeal hearing, Mrs James, 67, who had been married to her husband for more than 50 years, said: “At the moment if doctors feel that a treatment is ‘futile’ then they don’t have to give it. Not just at this hospital but all hospitals.

“I feel if I get this overturned, it’s a bit of justice for what Dave went through and what he shouldn’t have gone through. 

“I know it isn’t going to help Dave but it could help other families. This affects all of us.”

Further reading –

Liverpool Care Pathway – A Life Evaluation

Liverpool Care Pathway - In Whose "Best Interests"?

Liverpool Care Pathway – An Invasive Pathway

Liverpool Care Pathway - A Crime Has Been Committed

Liverpool Care Pathway - Obliged By Obligation!

Liverpool Care Pathway - A Human Rights Breach

Liverpool Care Pathway - And The Right To Life

The 1950 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is a binding international agreement that the UK helped draft and has sought to comply with for over half a century -

ARTICLE 1

The High Contracting Parties shall secure to everyone within their jurisdiction the rights and freedoms defined in Section I of this Convention.

SECTION I

ARTICLE 2

1. Everyone's right to life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law.
2. Deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this article when it results from the use of force which is no more than absolutely necessary:
   • (a) in defence of any person from unlawful violence;
   • (b) in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent escape of a person lawfully detained;
   • (c) in action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection.

The intentional withholding of medical treatment designed to preserve life clearly contravenes Article 2 of the ECHR.

Physicians, politicians, do not surrender so easily the right to life, for life is always precious and living matters -

"If I should ever seek death - there are several times when my progressive condition challenges me - I want to guarantee that you are there supporting my continued life and its value. The last thing I want is for you to give up on me, especially when I need you most."
- Lady Jane Campbell

       Don't Give Up

       In this proud land we grew up strong,

       We were wanted all along

       I was taught to fight, taught to win,

       I never thought I could fail

       No fight left or so it seems

       I am a man whose dreams have all deserted

       I've changed my face,

       I've changed my name

       But no-one wants you when you lose

       Don't give up

       Cos you have friends

       Don't give up,

       You're not beaten yet

       Don't give up,

       I know you can make it good

       Though I saw it all around,

       Never thought that I could be affected

       Thought that we'd be last to go,

       It is so strange the way things turn

       Drove the night toward my home

       The place that I was born, on the lakeside

       As daylight broke, I saw the earth

       The trees had burned down to the ground

       Don't give up,

       You still have us

       Don't give up,

       We don't need much of anything

       Don't give up

       Cause somewhere there's a place where we belong

       Rest your head,

       You worry too much

       It's going to be alright

       When times get rough

       You can fall back on us,

       Don't give up, please don't give up

       Got to walk out of here,

       I can't take any more

       Going to stand on that bridge,

       Keep my eyes down below

       Whatever may come

       And whatever may go

       That river's flowing,

       That river's flowing

       Moved on to another town,

       Tried hard to settle down

       For every job, so many men

       So many men no-one needs

       Don't give up

       Cos you have friends

       Don't give up,

       You're not the only one

       Don't give up,

       No reason to be ashamed

       Don't give up,

       You still have us

       Don't give up now,

       We're proud of who you are

       Don't give up,

       You know its never been easy

       Don't give up

       Cos I believe there's a place

       There's a place where we belong.

       - Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel