Abstract

KIE: The House of Lords affirmed the decisions of a Family Division Court and the Court of Appeal, Civil Division, permitting physicians to withhold medical treatment from an insensate patient in a persistent vegetative state, provided that the patient's death will imminently follow the removal of life-sustaining treatment. In this situation, the medical treatments to be withheld included artificial feeding and antibiotics to fight infection. The court reasoned that this afforded the patient a peaceful and dignified death without suffering, and fulfilled the course of nature. The court distinguished this circumstance from euthanasia, a criminal offense in which a doctor actively participates in bringing about a patient's death. In the future, doctors and families in similar situations were advised to petition the court before taking any comparable measure because, in the absence of action by Parliament, each instance requires case-by-case determination.