'Euthanasia?We couldn't possibly'. The Hypocrites!

[Gordon Booth]

Your partner, parent, child is inevitably dying in pain and you want to help them die with some dignity and comfort- you can't do that ,it's murder!
You ask the doctors to help them with a nice big shot of morphine so they'll go in comfort with perhaps a smile on their faces-they can't do that , it's euthanasia!

BUT-despair not, we have the Liverpool Care Pathway! I'd read about this before some time ago but thought it was a rare occurrence. Apparently not. An article in the Mail(28/11, don't know how to do an attachment) says it is now being applied to babies(British Medical Journal) as well as old people.

What is this marvelous ,caring way of helping a dying human to die with as little pain as possible and as quickly as possible? You let them starve and dehydrate to death! It may take two weeks but hey- it's legal, it frees up beds and the hospital gets a cash payment if it meets its LCP target!

Started in the 1990's its been adopted by hospitals all over the country. 130,000 old and/or terminally ill people are killed this dreadful way every year, now it's being applied to babies.

Can you imagine having intravenous liquids and food withdrawn from your baby or loved one and taking them home to watch them literally shrink and cry for a drink for up to two weeks?

The PC brigade- doctors, the Government, judges etc say they can't countenance painless euthanasia but will practice and accept this cruel treatment( or lack of it)!

Give me that nice big shot of morphine when the time comes- and make it legal!
Who's with me?

[Boeing Guy]

My Dads mum was on Pathway at the end. As I am aware of how it really works I will not bother to post on this, it is typical Daily Mail rubbish.
Also my mums mum passed away a few weeks ago, she was on palative care at the end as well.
You will not find me supporting the Daily Mails crusade, but then again I have had first hand experience of how Pathway is really run. Not what is in the rag that is the mail

[Less]

I think Gordon you perhaps going through something very personal?
How can the rest of us advise until, it happens to ourselves or someone close to us?

Please, understand whatever has caused you to start such a thread, will I hope, be treated as sympathetically by the Doctors involved can do.

[Margaret Pilkington]

If relatives and the patient are informed and want to use this to end their lives...then so be it....but there have been people who have been put on the LCP without these courtesies.
This is definitely wrong...as is the fact that hospitals get money for putting people on the LCP.......it can be a cause of unscrupulous behaviour......doing something for money rather than the good of the patient.

There has to be something in it for it to reach the newspapers in the way it has done...and not just the Mail....it isn't something that the Mail dreamed up on a slow news day.
(I have seen the care pathway used badly......but I have also seen it used well)

[Gordon Booth]

Boeing Guy, I never read the Mail normally, can't remember how I came across this article but as you say if you google LCP there is a quite a big campaign running on it. I'm glad your experience of it was so much more positive.
No,Less, I'm not on it(yet!!) nor do I know anyone who is, all I know is what I heard a while ago and read in the one article last week.
I started this thread because I think there is a much kinder, less unpleasant way of achieving the desired result, as long as it was carefully controlled.
It's good to see BGs positive response but Margaret, who probably knows more about its practice than any of us, expresses a mixed response to it.

[susie123]

Originally Posted by Gordon Booth

Boeing Guy, I never read the Mail normally, can't remember how I came across this article but as you say if you google LCP there is a quite a big campaign running on it. I'm glad your experience of it was so much more positive.
No,Less, I'm not on it(yet!!) nor do I know anyone who is, all I know is what I heard a while ago and read in the one article last week.
I started this thread because I think there is a much kinder, less unpleasant way of achieving the desired result, as long as it was carefully controlled.
It's good to see BGs positive response but Margaret, who probably knows more about its practice than any of us, expresses a mixed response to it.

I think it's something you have to read around carefully and not take the DM's hysterical word on anything (as usual). And then again different cases might suggest different solutions. Some relatives might prefer their loved ones to slip away gradually whereas in other cases a quick lethal injection might be preferred. It could also depend on the amount of pain being experienced. No easy answer I'm afraid.