flipper wrote:
On Thu, 3 Sep 2009 01:47:29 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
wrote:


Jim Thompson wrote:
Fascism at its finest...

Repeat After Me: There Are No Death Panels in Socialized Heathcare...

http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/archives/291725.php

==quote==
In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, a group of experts who care for
the terminally ill claim that some patients are being wrongly judged
as close to death.
Under NHS guidance introduced across England to help doctors and
medical staff deal with dying patients, they can then have fluid and
drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they
pass away.

But this approach can also mask the signs that their condition is
improving, the experts warn.

As a result the scheme is causing a "national crisis" in patient
care, the letter states. It has been signed palliative care experts
including Professor Peter Millard, Emeritus Professor of Geriatrics,
University of London, Dr Peter Hargreaves, a consultant in
Palliative Medicine at St Luke's cancer centre in Guildford, and
four others.

"Forecasting death is an inexact science," they say. Patients are
being diagnosed as being close to death "without regard to the fact
that the diagnosis could be wrong.

"As a result a national wave of discontent is building up, as family
and friends witness the denial of fluids and food to patients."

The warning comes just a week after a report by the Patients
Association estimated that up to one million patients had received
poor or cruel care on the NHS.
==quote==

A few years ago Florida had a case of "denial of fluids and food" to
a patient who was not even near death. I still think you, Jim, were
on the wrong side of that one.

While the courts ended up playing referee on which private citizen
would prevail at least that case was a dispute between family members
on what to do

...Until the righties insisted the government take over that decision.
lol