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Posted on 05/27/2010 11:51:09 AM PDT by Cardhu
Cancer patient forced by judge to have surgery A cancer patient is to be forced to undergo life-saving treatment against her wishes after a landmark ruling by a judge.
Doctors will be allowed forcibly to sedate the 55-year-old woman in her home and take her to hospital for surgery. She could be forced to remain on a ward afterwards.
The case has sparked an intense ethical and legal debate. Experts questioned whether lawyers and doctors should be able to override the wishes of patients and whether force was ever justified in providing medical care.
Treatment was ordered by Sir Nicholas Wall, the President of the Family Division, in the Court of Protection, after surgeons at the woman's local hospital applied for permission to force the surgery on her. They argued that without it, advanced cancer of the uterus would kill her.
Sir Nicholas agreed because the woman, who has learning difficulties, was deemed incapable of making a rational decision about the operation.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Quite different in every respect, actually. In this case, the powers that be want to save her life.
I hope this doesn’t come to the U.S.A.
This happened in Great Britain. Still a bad precedent, as US liberals take cues from what goes on in Europe.
My bipolar brother committed suicide at age 40 because he could no longer take being either heavily drugged or the chaos of trying to live without drugs.
This woman has chosen to accept the outcome of a naturally occuring fatal illness.
That fits within my civil and religious view of acceptable behavior and free will.
As I recall, they forcibly stopped a marriage and removed a child from it's parents because the mother was slightly limited in her faculties. That was the UK too.
I just noticed your Freeper name, Cardhu. That was one of my favorite low-cost single-malt Scotches until I couldn’t find it anymore.
Turns out it’s been bought by Diageo, which has made just about every conceivable PR blunder imaginable in regard to this brand.
You are right, it is a low-cost single-malt Scotch - I just happened to have a bottle in front of me when it came to thinking a handle for FR.
It’s not their decision to make. Giving the state power to decide life or death is the wrong move.
It’s the patient’s decision. If the patient declines treatment that would otherwise save their life, then it is the duty of the doctor to respect this decision. The same as when the patient needs treatment, that the state does not deny them from it.
If the state is powerful enough to give you life, then it is powerful enough to take it away.
That is true, my sister had a daily visiting caretaker for the last two years of her life. She had many medical problems and was almost blind too.
In the final months, they gave her a two bedroom apartment in an assisted care complex where the residents eat in a communal dining room.
Hmmm.....
I don’t agree with forced surgery but we as a society have a duty to care for those who are unable to make decisions.
I think in this instance the right decision was made. Saving a life is important.
I agree with you.
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