Briefing papers What happens in Hospitals DEATH BY DEHYDRATION The programme "The Age of Consent" on Channel 4 on 14th February 2002 made a brilliant case for killing frail, elderly people by depriving them of fluid, which was treated,as being legal. A nauseating comment by a relative described this deadly neglect as "tender loving care." Deciding whether to resuscitate after cardiac arrest, which would once have been thought of as "heroic treatment", was presented as being no different to deciding whether to withdraw a basic necessity of life. All the candidates for death were shown without their dentures. The cold calculation that society can't afford to keep a lot of old people alive was served up with dollops of false sweetness. "He wouldn't have wanted to live like that" will be followed down the slippery slope by the more accurate observation "He wouldn't have wanted to die like that". When the medical propagandists, and the Department of Health, decide we have had enough of this hospital hypocrisy, they will proceed to the next stage, the lethal injection: capital punishment for old age. The alternative is to go back to treating stroke patients as human beings, with the same right to live as ourselves. Other links Dr Michael Howitt Wilson Published by ALERT 27 Walpole Street, London SW3 4QS. Telephone 020 7730 730 2800. Fax 020 7730 0710.