UK Medical Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

UK Medical Law - Essay Example Terminally ill patients are also adaptable to a high level of disability as they value what little quality of life they have left. The legal position in respect of selective non-treatment was addressed by the House of Lords in Airedale NHS Trust v Bland1, wherein the applicant, a health authority sought an order to discontinue life-sustaining treatment and that the only medical treatment to be furnished should be for the purpose of enabling a peaceful and dignified death with the minimum of pain. The family of the patient supported this application. The respondent, 21-year-old Anthony Bland, had been in a persistently vegetative state for 3 years and though not brain dead, he had no cognitive function. The unanimous opinion of all the doctors who examined him was that there was no hope of recovery or improvement. Under these circumstances, it was considered appropriate to cease further treatment. The judge granted the order as requested and this was confirmed by both the Court of Appeals and the House of Lords. The House of Lords held that a doctor, who has to care for a patient who is incapable of consenting t o treatment, is under no obligation to prolong the patient's life regardless of the quality thereof. The court referred to ... sts of the patient, the court used the test laid down in Bolam v Friern Hospital Management Committee3, namely whether the proposed conduct would be in accordance with the opinion of a large informed and responsible group of medical practitioners. As the cessation of life-supporting treatment in this case was in accordance with the criteria set out in a discussion paper by the British Medical Association4, the court found that there had been compliance with the Bolam requirement. In this case Lord Mustill pointed to the need for legislation relating to euthanasia stating that, "The whole matter cries out for exploration in depth by Parliament and then for the establishment by legislation not only of a new set of ethically and intellectually consistent rules, distinct from the general criminal law, but also of a sound procedural framework within which the rules can be applied to individual cases." In R (Pretty) v. Director of Public Prosecutions5, Lord Steyn reiterated that reform of the law on assisted suicide should be undertaken by the legislature rather than by judges. Case law demonstrates the paradox that results from the current law. As Dame Butler-Sloss P. emphasised in B v An NHS Hospital Trust6, a competent patient may refuse any form of medical treatment, even life-prolonging medical treatment, for whatever reason. B was able to insist that the ventilator, which kept her alive, was to be disconnected.Diane Pretty was also able to make a competent and autonomous choice about the timing and manner of her death, but was unable to implement this decision due to a prohibition of assisted suicide and thus died in exactly the way she had tried to avoid. Bland, who could not make such a choice, was deemed to have an existence whose futility justified the