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"BACK BILL TO PROTECT PATIENTS", SAYS DOCTOR

Commenting on the case of a woman in a New Mexico hospital who has regained the power to speak after 16 years in a "semi-vegetative state", Dr. Peggy Norris, chair of ALERT, said today (Thursday 6th January):

"This case highlights the danger of being too hasty in writing off patients who can't communicate. "What a tribute this is to the care this woman received. What a difference from the way some people whose 'quality of life' was thought too low have been treated in Britain.

"Richard Barry Westerman, a young man who went into a coma after an asthma attack, was deprived of food and fluids after only months, in 1997. Nobody bothered to get permission from the Court. Some relatives who objected were barred from the hospital. It took him 15 days to die from lack of fluid, after a previous period of starvation. This is the treatment now being recommended by the British Medical Association for those of us they consider unworthy of life - and that could include anyone who can't communicate, perhaps because of inappropriate sedation.

"A Private Member's Bill, the 'Medical Treatment (Prevention of Euthanasia Bill', which is designed to make this inhumane treatment of helpless patients clearly illegal. It comes up for 2nd Reading on 28th January. WRITE NOW TO YOUR M.P. AND ASK HIM OR HER TO SUPPORT IT," said Dr. Norris.