28th August 2016

Be very very afraid.....
Too much state control here in France. First they introduced automatic organ donation. Unless you go to a lot of trouble in finding and signing the right form, your organs can be taken on death without permission. Now a 2nd violation:  in February, without fanfare, France introduced a new law whereby terminally-ill patients can be sedated, water and food withdrawn, until they die.  Imagine how I felt reading this, when my own dear brother suffered from exactly this in a UK hospice under the now discredited Liverpool Pathway scheme.  Legalised euthanasia by another name!  I know there will be some reading this who say 'it's for the best; he's dying anyway.'  No: it gives far too much power to doctors, who can now make their own, God-like, decisions on whether you live or die. Remember: there is no pain that can't be assuaged today by strong drugs. Don't let the State overrule our hard won independence, the human right to make our own decisions.
....life is precious. As long as we live, there is always hope. Don't take that away.

31 January 2016

Eight years ago my brother died in England aged just 61 after undergoing what I later discovered was the infamous 'Liverpool Pathway' procedure. The patient was put into a coma then deprived of food and water until he died. After much controversy at the time, the procedure was withdrawn. Now senators in France have just approved a law that allows terminally ill patients to also be put into a state of ‘deep and continuous sedation’ until they die. Doctors can stop life-sustaining treatment. Sedation and painkillers can also be administered ‘even if they could shorten the person’s life’. There is also an earlier law passed in 2005 which allows so-called ‘passive euthanasia’, in which any treatment needed to keep a person alive is withheld or withdrawn. Health Minister Marisol Touraine, who previously said she would not support a euthanasia law, said: "This new law is a major breakthrough."  Is this correct or just euthanasia of ill people to free up beds?  For me, the maintenance of life is everything and this new law puts us all on a slippery slope to easy elimination when the going gets tough.