Applicable ni sa pilininas? pwede diay ni?
Suicide woman allowed to die because doctors feared saving her would be assault - Telegraph
Miss Wooltorton, 26, who was suffering depression over her inability to have a child, drank poison at home and called an ambulance. However, she remained conscious and handed doctors a letter saying she wanted medical staff only to make her comfortable and not to try to save her life.
Doctors said her wishes were “abundantly clear” and although it was a “horrible thing” there had been no alternative but to let her die.
They feared they would be charged with assault if they treated her because they believed she understood what she was doing and was mentally capable of refusing treatment.
It is thought to be the first time someone has used a living will to commit suicide. The documents are more commonly associated with patients who are terminally ill and want to refuse treatment.
Miss Wooltorton’s family have since criticised the doctors, saying they should have intervened to save her.
The case will revive the “right to die” debate days after new guidelines on assisted suicide were published, saying those who help terminally ill patients to die are unlikely to face prosecution unless they stand to gain
financially.
So-called living wills – or advance directives – allow patients to set out what treatment they do not want should they become seriously ill. They were introduced following the 2005 Mental Capacity Act.
The General Medical Council has told doctors that failure to comply with the directives could lead to them being struck off.
Experts said that before the new laws came in, doctors faced with a similar case to Miss Wooltorton’s would have been likely to insist the patient be treated.
Doctors debating the case online said her history of mental illness could cast doubt on her ability to refuse treatment. Some argued it was not uncommon for people who attempt suicide to refuse treatment, only to change their minds later.
Campaigners gave warning that living wills were not designed for patients who wanted to commit suicide and questioned whether someone who had repeatedly tried to kill themselves had the capacity to refuse treatment.
The inquest into Miss Wooltorton’s death heard that she had drunk the poison up to nine times in the year before her death and each time doctors had flushed the toxins from her system.
She drew up her directive on Sept 15, 2007, stating in the document that she was “100 per cent aware of the consequences” of her actions and did not want to be treated.
Three days later she called an ambulance after drinking the poison at her flat in Norwich.
She was taken to the accident and emergency department of Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and handed over her letter and also made her wishes clear verbally, the inquest was told.
The letter said that if she called for an ambulance it was not a plea for treatment, but because she did not want to die alone and in pain. She lapsed into unconsciousness and died in hospital the next day. William Armstrong, the Norfolk coroner, recorded a narrative verdict that did not blame the hospital for her death. He stated: “She had capacity to consent to treatment which, it is more likely than not, would have prevented her death. She refused such treatment in full knowledge of the consequences and died as a result.”
But asked about the consequences had he intervened, Dr Alexander Heaton, the hospital’s consultant renal physician, said: “I would’ve been breaking the law and I wasn’t worried about her suing me, but I think she would have asked, 'What do I have to do to tell you what my wishes".
Suicide with living will allowed to die - applicable ni pinas?
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