Please try not to be diagnosed with a terminal illness in England. Because if you do then the doctor may decide to put you on the Terri Schiavo diet even when you make it clear that this is against your wishes. That at least is my interpretation of this Appeal Court ruling.
Doctors Given 'Right-To-Life' Decisions
The General Medical Council has won its appeal against a ruling allowing a terminally ill man to stop doctors withdrawing his feeding tube.Lesley Burke did not want doctors to stop giving him food and water in the final stages of his illness.The ruling has wide implications for terminally ill people who want the right to die.
And it means that decisions over people's right to live or die are back in the hands of doctors, rather than the patients.
[... T]he GMC told the Court of Appeal it believes the ruling could put doctors in "an impossibly difficult position".
The organisation believes it obliges a doctor to provide treatment which the patient demands - even if the doctor believes the treatment will not provide any benefit or would be futile.
The GMC said the patient did not have the right to demand any particular form of treatment.
Is it just me who finds that last line particularly chilling? Update: The BBC has a different take saying that the original ruling opened a whole can of worms about doctors being forced to treat patients in counterproductive ways and I sort of see their point, although it occurs to me that the solution is for said Dr to say "If you don't want like my treatment then find another doctor". Tim W has a link to statistics about deliberate deaths in Holland which are also scary - although I'm haveing trouble accessing the individual article right now so you might want to go to the main page