Communicator (communicator) wrote,
Communicator
communicator

Natural death

Many doctors give pain relief at life-shortening doses. Sounds shocking at first reading, but in fact if your patient won't last the night, and is screaming in pain, you don't worry about giving them a high dose of morphine. A person can't for instance survive 90% burns, and yet people like that are lying on hospital beds right now, dying without any skin. I say give them what is needed to stop their unbearable suffering. And if there is a God I don't believe 'he' is watching Earth saying a burned man has to live days without skin, to die a natural death.

Our House of Lords does not agree, by a majority of 48. A bill was proposed to allow doctors to prescribe drugs at lethal dose to a small subclass of patients, those with 'Less than six months to live, who were suffering unbearably and were deemed to be of sound mind and not depressed' could be legally given drugs up to lethal levels, though the decision to take the drug would be in their own hands. The Church took it down, it's as simple as that. It's illegal. The bill might come back in six months or so for another go.

ETA - I should add that 'alleviating symptoms which may have the effect of shortening life' is currently legal in Britain. So, in practice, we don't stick to the Church's guidelines on natural death despite this bill being defeated.
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