This site explains how the law now allows people to make decisions to refuse treatments including those that sustain life. Many people want to achieve a natural and dignified death, this is one way to help achieve it. This is a free and non-profit NHS website. We suggest people enter the site using the relevent menu section (above). Many people benefit from looking at both sections.
More than 700,000 people in the UK currently suffer from dementia, and nearly 500,000 friends and family members act as carers for people with dementia. Our rapidly ageing population means that these numbers are likely to double in the next forty years. While we are getting to understand better the causes of the disease, and diagnostic and treatment options are improving, we are still a long way from prevention or cure. Meanwhile, these people and their families, healthcare staff and care workers face difficult ethical dilemmas on a day-to-day basis. An exploratory workshop was held in March 2007, and the Nuffield Council set up a Working Party in December 2007 to examine the ethical issues raised by dementia. Following a public consultation and meetings with stakeholders including people with dementia, carers, health professionals and other members of the public, a report with recommendations for policy makers was published on 1st October 2009.
25th July 2013: The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) made Advance Decisions to refuse treatment legally binding in statutory law in 2005, and Compassion in Dying has been providing free information on end of life and Advance Decision forms since 2010. A new study, which looked at in excess of 200 calls to Compassion in Dying, found that a major barrier to patients exercising choice was doctors’ failure to engage with patients about their Advance Decision and the lack of systems in place to record them. Two callers reported considering a ‘DNR tattoo’ as a way of addressing this problem. The study also found women (84% of callers) are more likely than men (16%) to make their wishes known at the end of life. Professor Sue Wilkinson, author of the report and Professor of Feminist and Health Studies in the Department of Social Sciences at Loughborough University said: “This study has led to a number of recommendations for Compassion in Dying, and more broadly for the integration of Adva...