[Mrs. Don-o]

Food and water should NOT be classified as medical treatment. They MUST be classified as "ordinary care." Otherwise as soon as you can't communicate --- even if you have it in writing that you would want to be fed --- the managed-death people will see that you die quickly (or not-so-quickly) and badly.

[Mrs. Don-o]

ping

[joesnuffy]

When did the patient start dying... doctor

Why as soon as we denied her food and water..the patiend appeared to 'have had it'

Before care begins to eat into profits...move em on out

imo

[Spok]

When the UK's transition to total socialism is complete, everyone will be denied food.

[Lokibob]

Let me see if I have this right:


If you commit murder or blow people up, you go to prison for the rest of your life and they feed you but:


If you get old and sick, they can starve you to death.


sounds like a liberal policy to me.

[CollegeRepublicanNU]

Does this mean I won't get a popsicle after I get my blood drawn??????????? (sarcasm)

Last time I checked dying people are hungry too...

[tutstar]

ping

[delacoert]

doctors do have the power to withdraw food and drink from terminally ill patients - even if it is against their wishes.

Do they have the right to prevent patients from moving to a care facility (home maybe) that would provide food and water?

[k2blader]

I recall the same argument ("food and water is medical treatment") surface during the Terri Schiavo travesty..

[Stellar Dendrite]

and the sheeple keep taking it and taking it and taking it....

[GloriaJane]

Makes me wonder how many people will die of other wise curable ills because now they well be afraid that if they do seek care, they might be starved to death.

[MrBambaLaMamba]

Stop feeding the prisoners, it only prolongs their suffering ...

[kingu]

The way the ruling reads, if you're terminally ill (expected to expire in less than a year), even if you're able to talk, move your hands, etc, they can still decide to withhold food and water from you. (Not quite sure how this works, can they strap a patient down to prevent them from eating someone else's food?)

In reality, if you're unable to feed yourself, they have no obligation to provide intravenous food and water. A significant thing in a nation with state managed health care. I suppose if you could find a private doctor and pay them, you could continue to survive, but the state wouldn't be obligated, through their doctors, to feed and give you water.

I'm of the mind to believe that the English high court is reasonable in this judgment. Even if you desire life prolonging treatment, there has either got to be a public interest in doing so (IE you're going to recover) or the patient pays for the care.

Folks worried about this over there should push for private health care and choose methods of paying for that care.

I suppose I'll have to don my flame proof suit for pointing out the obvious here. And this is a separate issue than the Shivao case since there is, presumably, no outside source that wants to care for the gentleman when he is no longer able to do so himself.

[Chode]

End Stage Socialism...

[SweetCaroline]

exactly what Terri Shavio episode was about, opening the door to this Pandora's Box!!

Why would anyone be surprised????

[eeriegeno]

Deja vu, Terri??????

[kittymyrib]

This is what you end up with when the government is in charge of your health care. This case should be exhibit B in the case against socialized medicine. Exhibit A was the case in England where the government decided to deny care to a sick infant against the parents wishes because it was a "waste" of health care dollars. Giving politicians and bureaucrats the power of life and death makes them gods...something they crave, by the way.