The president of the Catholic Medical Association
in the UK believes that euthanasia is quite widely practised in the
country's National Health Service in an unofficial way, said a report in
the Independent Catholic News.
Dr Clare Walker explained how she is regularly contacted by
distressed health care professionals and managers who describe their
experience of witnessing repeated instances of unofficial, active
euthanasia in their local areas.
"The standards of medical ethics and of interpretation of existing
legislation appear to vary greatly around the country and from one
organisation to the next, even in the same local area," said Dr Walker.
One development that has enabled this to happen is the adoption of
the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), developed in Liverpool in the 1990s as
a result of collaboration between the Royal Liverpool Hospital and the
Marie Curie hospice.
It aimed to bring
hospice-style palliative care for those living out their last hours in
hospital and its main emphasis was to unite professional support in the
fields of physical treatment, psychological support, and support for
carers and spiritual care.
"There is no reason to be suspicious when the LCP is being used in
appropriate circumstances to a higher standard of care," said Dr Walker.
However, the scheme has now been rolled out across the country, with
the application depending on widely differing levels of ethical
application.
"If it is used out of context, then it could be used to the detriment
of patients. For example, a patient comes into a resuscitation bay and
it is not always clear if a condition is acute and can be treated," said
Dr Walker, who recalls that in some hospitals the LCP has become known
as the Lazarus Care Pathway due to the number of people who have been
put on it inappropriately, are not moribound and subsequently need to be
actively treated.