"MAKING DECISIONS" AND THE BLAND JUDGEMENT

Motion Text

That this House notes the Government's persistent promises to oppose euthanasia and Ministers' repeated commitments not to introduce legislation to enshrine in statute law the Bland judgement; further notes that this defined assisted food and fluid as treatment which was withdrawn from Mr Tony Bland bringing about his death by dehydration and starvation; regrets that the White Paper on 'Making Decisions' now reverses this promise by putting forward the Bland judgement as a basis for medical practice; further notes that nothing in the paper would protect patients from doctors withdrawing life sustaining food and fluid or from proxy decision-makers refusing medical treatment, including assisted food and fluids, on behalf of the incapacitated; and calls on the Government to make good its promise to oppose euthanasia by the immediate introduction of a Bill to outlaw doctors bringing about death by deliberate omission or commission in patients who are not dying.