We’re all going to die, so why do we so rarely talk about it? There is, of course, the ongoing public debate about euthanasia – specifically, the assisted-suicide of terminally ill patients – where the focus tends to be on particular, and often rare, medical conditions.
But as well as the fact that we’re all going to die, it is also the case that we will all become terminally ill at the end of our lives – in that, at some point, our bodily functions will be so compromised as to make our imminent demise inevitable. This may all take place very quickly, for instance in the case of a massive heart attack or a fatal injury, but for most of us, the process of dying will take place over hours or days.
So the question is this: how would you like to be cared for when the time comes? Would you prefer a barrage of aggressive medical interventions to extend what little life remains to you? Or would you have nature take its course, with medical attention focused on the alleviation of pain and discomfort?
Most people would surely choose the latter – and the purpose of the Liverpool Care Pathway, as widely practiced within the NHS, is designed to give the dying that choice. It is explained here by Dr Peter Saunders on his Christian Medical Comment blog:
Last week there were a number of reports alleging that the NHS was using the Liverpool Care Pathway as a covert form of euthanasia. Some headlines even gave the impression that 130,000 elderly patients were being killed off every year.
Dr Saunders leads the Christian Medical Fellowship, which opposes euthanasia. If the NHS really was euthanising the elderly en masse, he would surely raise the alarm:
Though Saunders believes that we need to be vigilant against individual abuses, he is also concerned that the false notion of systematic abuse will only make the legalisation of euthanasia more likely: