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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/25/right-to-die-law-prevent-another-gosport-scandal
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| A right-to-die law is the only way to prevent another Gosport | A right-to-die law is the only way to prevent another Gosport |
| (6 months later) | |
| The Gosport scandal makes an appalling NHS 70th birthday present. The damage done will ricochet around the health service and could threaten more harm to patients, if the wrong lessons are learned. | The Gosport scandal makes an appalling NHS 70th birthday present. The damage done will ricochet around the health service and could threaten more harm to patients, if the wrong lessons are learned. |
| Scandals like Gosport will be repeated until government targets are banned | Simon Jenkins | |
| Callous “life shortening” that killed at least 456 people has all the hall-marks of routine extermination of the inconvenient. With NHS beds brimful of aged nuisances, here is the spectre of overworked, desensitised staff tempted to speed the end without consent of patient or next of kin. The tenacious Gosport relatives who soldiered on despite rejection from every tier of officialdom finally – three decades later – exposed the scandal. A full 29% of patients who died of a lethal morphine overdose in Daedalus ward – nicknamed “dead loss” – were suffering no pain. Some only came for a short rehabilitation, but got sudden death instead. | Callous “life shortening” that killed at least 456 people has all the hall-marks of routine extermination of the inconvenient. With NHS beds brimful of aged nuisances, here is the spectre of overworked, desensitised staff tempted to speed the end without consent of patient or next of kin. The tenacious Gosport relatives who soldiered on despite rejection from every tier of officialdom finally – three decades later – exposed the scandal. A full 29% of patients who died of a lethal morphine overdose in Daedalus ward – nicknamed “dead loss” – were suffering no pain. Some only came for a short rehabilitation, but got sudden death instead. |
| Naturally, the NHS’s instinctive enemies suggest this horror is emblematic. Dominic Lawson, in the Sunday Times, sneers at the Guardian’s celebration of the NHS at 70, “in which various eminent folk explained why it is what makes Britain great”. Like others, he hints the service must be harbouring many other fatal events. But Ipsos Mori finds that 73% of patients say their treatment exceeded or was as good as their expectations. Terrible things may happen, but public affection is solidly based on good experience. | Naturally, the NHS’s instinctive enemies suggest this horror is emblematic. Dominic Lawson, in the Sunday Times, sneers at the Guardian’s celebration of the NHS at 70, “in which various eminent folk explained why it is what makes Britain great”. Like others, he hints the service must be harbouring many other fatal events. But Ipsos Mori finds that 73% of patients say their treatment exceeded or was as good as their expectations. Terrible things may happen, but public affection is solidly based on good experience. |
| One of those terrible things is the revelation that the syringe drivers – used for years in Gosport and elsewhere to administer constant sedation – were faulty. The Sunday Times has found that some were used until five years ago. Cheap and shoddy, a malfunction could deliver a 24-hour diamorphine dose in an hour, in one fatal shot. | One of those terrible things is the revelation that the syringe drivers – used for years in Gosport and elsewhere to administer constant sedation – were faulty. The Sunday Times has found that some were used until five years ago. Cheap and shoddy, a malfunction could deliver a 24-hour diamorphine dose in an hour, in one fatal shot. |
| The outrage over Gosport may actually harm patients in pain. After the Harold Shipman murders, GPs feared easing the death of the terminally ill, as every ampoule of morphine was now rigidly accounted for. Will those in the greatest pain now find access to morphine curtailed? The “analgesic ladder” in the British National Formulary already has strict guidelines on morphine doses, but doctors may now fear the unclear distinction between pain relief and hastening death. | The outrage over Gosport may actually harm patients in pain. After the Harold Shipman murders, GPs feared easing the death of the terminally ill, as every ampoule of morphine was now rigidly accounted for. Will those in the greatest pain now find access to morphine curtailed? The “analgesic ladder” in the British National Formulary already has strict guidelines on morphine doses, but doctors may now fear the unclear distinction between pain relief and hastening death. |
| “Please keep comfortable” is a good instruction for doctors. But the dread phrase used by Dr Jane Barton to sign the death warrant of those not in pain or close to death has become an awful euphemism for summary execution. Expect it to enter the lexicon of dark medical humour: watch out or I’ll “keep you comfortable”. | “Please keep comfortable” is a good instruction for doctors. But the dread phrase used by Dr Jane Barton to sign the death warrant of those not in pain or close to death has become an awful euphemism for summary execution. Expect it to enter the lexicon of dark medical humour: watch out or I’ll “keep you comfortable”. |
| The tragedy is that this scandal may increase the number of bad deaths. While good births get much attention, the good death eludes too many. Hospices and palliative-care professionals have been a blessing – but as a heavily Christianity-based culture, they have also obstructed the right to die: too often they claim all pain can be eased, when that’s not the case. I have seen how even the highest doses often don’t ease the worst agonies, but their testimony in parliament has successfully prevented right-to-die legislation. | The tragedy is that this scandal may increase the number of bad deaths. While good births get much attention, the good death eludes too many. Hospices and palliative-care professionals have been a blessing – but as a heavily Christianity-based culture, they have also obstructed the right to die: too often they claim all pain can be eased, when that’s not the case. I have seen how even the highest doses often don’t ease the worst agonies, but their testimony in parliament has successfully prevented right-to-die legislation. |
| Needless to say, right-to-die opponents have been quick to use the Gosport scandal. “How many thousands could have their ‘lives shortened’ unlawfully when assisted suicide becomes legal?” asks one prominent Christian blogger. | Needless to say, right-to-die opponents have been quick to use the Gosport scandal. “How many thousands could have their ‘lives shortened’ unlawfully when assisted suicide becomes legal?” asks one prominent Christian blogger. |
| My mother, longing for death, asked: 'Where’s Shipman when you need him?' She might now say: 'Take me to Gosport.' | My mother, longing for death, asked: 'Where’s Shipman when you need him?' She might now say: 'Take me to Gosport.' |
| The difference between unwanted death and assisted suicide can be encapsulated in one word: choice. It’s the difference between a woman’s right to choose abortion, and the Chinese state dragging her off to abort a baby against her will under the one-child rule. The right to die is the last frontier in a long battle to take control of our own beings, our bodies, our life and death. The lesson of Gosport is that patronising, insensitive outsiders, whether doctors or legislators, do not have the right to make these decisions for us. Many, faced with terminal illness, choose to savour every last minute of life, even in pain. Others don’t. That choice is well-understood by the 82% who have for years strongly supported the right to die. | The difference between unwanted death and assisted suicide can be encapsulated in one word: choice. It’s the difference between a woman’s right to choose abortion, and the Chinese state dragging her off to abort a baby against her will under the one-child rule. The right to die is the last frontier in a long battle to take control of our own beings, our bodies, our life and death. The lesson of Gosport is that patronising, insensitive outsiders, whether doctors or legislators, do not have the right to make these decisions for us. Many, faced with terminal illness, choose to savour every last minute of life, even in pain. Others don’t. That choice is well-understood by the 82% who have for years strongly supported the right to die. |
| Those who, mainly for religious reasons, claim it would be a slippery slope to Gosport-style dangers, deliberately ignore how a law would prevent another Gosport, with proper regulation bringing transparency to end-of-life treatment. Legislation advocated by the organisation Dignity in Dying would allow terminally ill patients in their final months, and mentally competent, to choose – with the oversight of two independent doctors and a high court judge – a quicker death. Personally, I would go further and legislate for a living will to end our lives if dementia takes hold, so our competent selves can act as custodian for our future incompetent selves: a guarantee to avoid humiliating mental collapse. | Those who, mainly for religious reasons, claim it would be a slippery slope to Gosport-style dangers, deliberately ignore how a law would prevent another Gosport, with proper regulation bringing transparency to end-of-life treatment. Legislation advocated by the organisation Dignity in Dying would allow terminally ill patients in their final months, and mentally competent, to choose – with the oversight of two independent doctors and a high court judge – a quicker death. Personally, I would go further and legislate for a living will to end our lives if dementia takes hold, so our competent selves can act as custodian for our future incompetent selves: a guarantee to avoid humiliating mental collapse. |
| The best answer to Gosport is legal clarity to protect vulnerable people and let the fully alert escape a lingering death. My mother, longing for death, asked her GP wryly: “Where’s Dr Shipman when you need him?” She might now say: “Take me to Gosport.” But that’s no way to go: there is a crystal-clear difference between an unwanted, premature end and choosing an easeful death. | The best answer to Gosport is legal clarity to protect vulnerable people and let the fully alert escape a lingering death. My mother, longing for death, asked her GP wryly: “Where’s Dr Shipman when you need him?” She might now say: “Take me to Gosport.” But that’s no way to go: there is a crystal-clear difference between an unwanted, premature end and choosing an easeful death. |
| • Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist | • Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist |
| Assisted dying | Assisted dying |
| Opinion | Opinion |
| Harold Shipman | Harold Shipman |
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| Death and dying | Death and dying |
| Older people | Older people |
| NHS | NHS |
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