Where Treatment Is Death

The Liverpool Care Pathway has finally made the headlines in Malta. However, the instances of helpless patients being denied the basic necessities needed to sustain life have been increasingly in the news in the UK since 2000.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) for the dying patient is one of the key programmes within the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Portfolio and was recognized as a model of best practice in the NHS Beacon Programme (2001). It was subsequently recommended in the End of Life Care Strategy DH2008, the aim being to improve care of the dying in the last hours or days of life for the terminally ill.

“There are strict guidelines for the proper use of LCP but these are hardly followed” – Miriam Sciberras

However, a lot of questions need to be asked regarding its increasingly widespread application for those with incurable diseases (including dementia) or those defined as “probably dying”. There are strict guidelines for the proper use of LCP but these are hardly followed. In 2009, it was reported that LCP was being gradually adopted nationwide and that more than 300 hospitals, 130 hospices and 560 care homes in England were using this system.

The main problem with LCP is that the consent of the patient is not even required. In fact, in the UK, since the 2005 Mental Capacity Act, doctors are allowed to withhold all “treatment”, including food and water, from patients who are judged to be incapable of making decisions for themselves. Under this law, doctors, and not the family and not the patient, have the last say in whether a patient is judged mentally capable. Once this judgment has been made, withdrawal of fluids can be ordered on grounds that it is in the patient’s “best interests” to die.

It is pertinent to point out that, in England and Wales, food and water administered by a doctor count as “medical treatment”. This is leading to patients, mostly the elderly, being left in the dire predicament of losing their lives prematurely.

Anti-euthanasia groups and various competent physicians have been speaking out against the increasing misuse of this protocol. In 2008, Adrian Treloar, a psycho-geriatrician and senior lecturer at the Greenwich Hospital and Guys’, King’s and St Thomas’s hospitals in London, had warned that the national health service has an unofficial system in place to authorize the killing of vulnerable disabled patients with an unwritten policy of “involuntary euthanasia” by deep sedation and dehydration.

Another physician, Philip Harrison, whose elderly father was put under continuous deep sedation without being consulted in August 2009, wrote this: “I’ve seen euthanasia once but I’ve never seen anybody being put to death without consent. It was as near to a form of murder that I had come across”.

Medical sociology professor Clive Seale also confirmed that, from his research, the use of continuous deep sedation across the UK is far from “uncommon”.

Peter Millard, emeritus professor of geriatrics at St Georges, University of London, maintains that the LCP encourages some doctors to give up on patients too quickly and place them on the death pathway when they might otherwise have survived. According to Prof. Millard, “Diagnosing imminent death is one of the most difficult decisions a serious physician has to make”.
Prof. Millard was one of a group of six, including Anthony Cole, Peter Hargreaves, David Hill, Elizabeth Negus and Dowager Lady Salisbury (chairman, Choose Life), who claimed that some patients were being wrongly judged as close to death. To this end, they signed a letter together in September 2009 against the prevalent misuse of LCP. The following is an extract from their letter: “Forecasting death is an inexact science. If you tick all the right boxes in the Liverpool Care Pathway, the inevitable outcome of the consequent treatment is death.

“As a result, a nationwide wave of discontent is building up as family and friends witness the denial of fluids and food to patients. Syringe drivers are being used to give continuous terminal sedation without regard to the fact that the diagnosis could be wrong. It is disturbing that, in the year 2007-2008, 16.5 per cent of deaths came about after terminal sedation.”

This was recently confirmed by Patrick Pullicino, the Maltese consultant neurologist at East Kent Hospitals. Prof. Pullicino made the headlines claiming that the UK’s NHS kills off 130,000 elderly patients every year. He maintains that, in this way, hospitals are using end-of-life care to help elderly patients die because they are difficult to look after and take up valuable beds.

Despite such a number of highly esteemed medical specialists among numerous others that have been raising the alarm regarding the LCP, there have been no definite declarations from the health authorities to put people’s mind at rest. This is making the elderly patients and their families in Britain fear going to hospital in their old age.

The elderly, especially 80-year-olds, with chronic conditions like Parkinson’s, dementia or respiratory disorders are among the unfortunate candidates put on LCP, dismissed as dying when they could still live for some more time. Patients with diminished mental and physical capacities are also very vulnerable candidates.

The elderly are at a very vulnerable stage of life and need our compassion, respect, care and support. At this time, the state cannot shrink from its duty to care for these people nor should it see them as burdens. With the declining birth rate in most countries, there will be increasing pressures on an already overburdened socialised health care system to make hospital beds available at the expense of premature termination of lives.

Written by Dr Miriam Sciberras.

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2 Million Pro-Life Petition Vetoed

The largest petition, in the history of the European continent, calling for an end to European funding of research that destroys human embryos, was vetoed by the European Commission.

In its last day in office May 28th, the “Barroso Commission” vetoed the Citizens’ Initiative “Un de Nous / One of Us” which demands that Brussels no longer finances any practice that destroys human life before birth.

The petition, backed by two million people and the largest in the history of the European Institutions, calls on the EU research budget to no longer be used to finance projects that involve or pre-suppose the destruction of human embryos. In order to cease funding, it requests that modifications be made to EU regulations.

Read more on Zenit by clicking here.

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Pro-life Malta’s third Great Siege begins

As the battle continues across Europe and the World, journalist Hilary White, mentioned Malta as the last European country standing when it comes to opposing abortion.

White speaks on how when she first started working within pro-life back in 1999, Malta along with Poland and Ireland were the last three European countries standing. However, recently, after meeting with the leaderships of the Maltese pro-life movement, she was informed that Malta is currently the last country standing to outlaw abortion.

White explains how in Poland, abortion became legal in 1993 in cases of ““when pregnancy constitutes a threat to life or to the health of the pregnant woman,” in cases where the unborn child is “irreversibly damaged” or seriously ill, and where there is a “justified suspicion” of the pregnancy being the result of rape.””

Ireland “brought it in under “strictly limited circumstances” last year, and the campaigners are hard at work to get rid of those “limits” as soon as possible.” White continues explaining.

So how did pro-life Malta sand so strong?

See source article, taken from LifeSiteNews.com Blogger Hilary White’s ‘ Pro-life Malta’s third Great Siege begins: will they stand strong?

We need your support in order to be able to spread the news on the value of life. Your donation will help us to educate people of all ages, organise pro-life seminars and buy books & materials to facilitate educate. Like every life is infinitely priceless, so is every donation. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

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Is The Church Being Heard?

Ian Grech’s outburst against the Church (‘Church’s voice is loud enough’, July 10) betrays a profound ignorance of elementary history & religion. 

Many of us are quite fed up of the continual baseless arguments against Christianity.

The Archbishop should not hesitate to proclaim the counter-cultural teachings of the Church, as they provide the key to happiness in this world and the next. We expect him to admonish and rally a flock that is dispirited, indolent, indifferent and largely ignorant of the Good News.

Meanwhile, Grech should realise that so many of the positive achievements we take for granted in Europe are the fruit of our Catholic roots. Unfortunately, the general lowering of standards in the teaching of history, literature and philosophy have led to a self-satisfied and so-called educated generation that have wretched standards. This is reflected in the nonsensical and offensive articles which choke the media.

Grech’s belief that divorce, the redefinition of marriage, with so-called ‘homosexual marriage’, and uncontrolled fertility treatment are the key to fulfilled and happy lives is a figment of his imagination. It is not supported by the realities that unfold.

The correspondent should question the children of broken relationships, the abandoned spouses and the children brought up in deliberately-designed dysfunctional environments. As for embryos… since they have no voice in our brave, new world, they can, unfortunately, be conveniently ignored. In this charming scenario, where might is considered to be right, Grech sees the Church as an obstacle to happiness.

Maybe our Archbishop should be concerned about such widespread ignorance and misinformation. It might be a salutary step if he would focus on future generations and ensure that our Church schools really do have a Catholic ethos. He should also take a close look at the Church-run media and ensure that they are used to the maximum to transmit the untarnished message of the gospel.

The Church PR should also make the effort to react to the unjust assertions, such as those by Grech, which so often continue to remain unchallenged.

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Freedom to choose life

A truly humane society is measured by how it cares for its weakest members, namely the preborn, the ill, the disabled and the elderly.

It is a society that attributes an intrinsic value to life in all its stages, be it an embryo, foetus, infant or adult. This is the present Maltese scenario, one of our strong unifying positions in a politically-divisive country.

We are a people who still value life, appreciate life and care for our disabled and elderly brethren. Unfortunately, for most countries, commodification of life has become rampant.

Prenatal diagnosis does not change the intrinsic value of life. The dignity of a child does not alter with a diagnosis of Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, spina bifida or any other health condition. Disability-selective abortion is nothing more than a ‘search and destroy mission’ to kill innocent infants whose life is deemed ‘inferior’. This is a justified eugenics in search of the perfect child.

Malta remains the only country in the EU that fully respects human life from conception. However, the unremitting pressure to comply with women’s so called ‘reproductive rights’, including abortion, remains. It might be pertinent for members of Parliament to point out to our European counterparts that we are free to choose protection of life for our preborn infants.

Liberal laws and liberal people or countries are not really liberal when they threaten or try to coerce those who disagree with them into complying.

Rita Joseph, a Canberra-based writer, lecturer and human rights advocate, aptly describes the sequence of events taking place. “As ‘sensitivity to the gender implications’ of a woman’s putative right to abortion has grown to gross proportions it has swamped all residual sensitivity to the lethal implications of abortion for the unborn child victims. Under the guise of ‘reform’, the feminist revolution has taken the path of excess that so many revolutions before have taken: the oppressed have become the oppressors.”

Speakers from both political parties, to their credit, have consistently spoken out against abortion both locally and in political fora abroad. Recently, Environment Minister Leo Brincat defended Malta’s position against abortion in the Socialist Group meeting at the Council of Europe. It is thanks to the vigilance of such representatives that Malta is still free to choose life.

Our stand for life includes respect for the humanity and fragility of the human embryo. Embryos have a right not to be intentionally manipulated and endangered, inherent in the fact of being human beings.

The freezing of embryos constitutes an offence against the respect for human life at its most vulnerable because this procedure exposes the embryos to increased risk of harm and death. It also exposes the embryo to wilful suspension of his/her life.

Playing word games with human lives endangers all of us and justifies anything

Achieving a pregnancy should not come at the expense of demeaning embryonic life. When we speak of ‘pregnancy rates’ without taking into account the humanity of the unborn, we risk going down a dangerous road that puts the protection of the embryo at risk, to say the least.

As quoted in Times of Malta recently, Simone Attard, vice president of the Embryo Protection Authority, insisted that a 28 per cent pregnancy rate last year compared well with the 32 per cent success rate reported by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.

This success rate without embryo selection and despite having no ‘freezing’ in the first year augurs well for the professionals working in this field. Professional training should increasingly be focused on improving this technique not resorting to ‘freezing’ as a back-up.

If we are to remain a country ‘free to choose life’, we cannot afford any complacency regarding protection of human life at any stage. The fundamental principle that all rights flow from the human person must remain at the heart of our society. Playing word games with human lives, in the end, endangers all of us and justifies anything.

True freedom is not to be confused with freedom from responsibility but implies a responsibility to our fellow man, including our unborn embryonic brothers and sisters.

We need your support in order to be able to spread the news on the value of life. Your donation will help us to educate people of all ages, organise pro-life seminars and buy books & materials to facilitate educate. Like every life is infinitely priceless, so is every donation. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

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