The National Ethics Council has intensively discussed the issues involved in dealing responsibly with dying. It has perused a large volume of material, obtained expert opinions, consulted with doctors and other medical specialists, and held meetings in Augsburg and Münster at which it exposed itself to public debate. The outcome is enshrined in the Opinion now presented. Self-determination and care at the end of life continues the examination of the themes addressed in the Opinion The advance directive published in June 2005. The present analysis, in conjunction with the clarification of terminology here proposed, may facilitate interpretation of the recommendations set out in that Opinion.
Advance decisions and proxy decision-making in medical treatment and research 13 November 2007 June 2007 This guidance covers the law and ethical issues involved in competent individuals making advance decisions about their later medical treatment and proxy decisions about medical treatment made by other people on behalf of adults who lack mental capacity. When they are mentally competent, patients decide for themselves whether or not to accept the medical treatments recommended by health professionals. This guidance is about what happens when that mental ability to make a valid decision is lost.
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.
Doctors were forced to allow a young woman to die as she had made a "living will" requesting no medical help if she attempted suicide. They would have risked breaking the law by treating Kerrie Wooltorton, 26, of Norwich, an inquest heard. Miss Wooltorton wrote her living will in September 2007, asking for no intervention if she tried to take her own life.
This End of life guidance covers three main issues: contemporaneous and advance refusal of treatment; withholding and withdrawing life-prolonging medical treatment; assisted dying - euthanasia and assisted suicide.
'Living wills' that stipulate exactly how a person wants to die should be drawn up with absolute clarity, a judge has ruled after concluding a 67-year-old man with motor neurone disease had made a "valid decision" to refuse treatment.
The Parliamentary Assembly, referring to its Resolution 1859 (2012) on protecting human rights and dignity by taking into account previously expressed wishes of patients, commends the Committee of Ministers for its foresighted and timely adoption of both the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (Oviedo Convention, ETS No. 164) and Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)11 on principles concerning continuing powers of attorney and advance directives for incapacity.
An international leader in bioethics, Peggy [Battin] explored the right to a good and easeful death by their own hand, if need be, for people who were terminally ill, as well as for those whose lives had become intolerable because of chronic illness, serious injury or extreme old age. She didn’t shy away from contentious words like “euthanasia.” In the weeks after the accident, Peggy found herself thinking about the title character in Tolstoy’s “Death of Ivan Ilyich,” who wondered, “What if my whole life has been wrong?” Her whole life had involved writing “wheelbarrows full” of books and articles championing self-determination in dying. And now here was her husband, a plugged-in mannequin in the I.C.U., the very embodiment of a right-to-die case study.
New report finds half of dying Britons are not dying well At a pivotal time for end of life care in Britain the need for advance care planning is reinforced Divided in Dying, a new report from charity Compassion in Dying, finds that almost half of those who have lost someone close to them through a short or long illness, feel their loved one died badly (45%). In cases where the dying person had recorded their end of life wishes, relatives and friends are more likely to report that they had a good death (58%). Alongside recording end of life wishes (19%), better communication between the doctor and their loved one (39%), co-ordination of care (33%) and being able to die in a place of their choice (31%) were also identified as key aspects which could have improved the situation for the person who died in a bad way. Compassion in Dying surveyed over 2400 British adults who were asked to recall the experience of the last relative or close friend who died.
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...