By Gudrun Schultz and John-Henry Westen

  LONDON, January 16, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Observer in the UK reported Sunday that Catholics in the UK have taken to carrying special ID cards informing doctors that they do not wish to be deprived of food and fluids in the case of admission to hospital.

  In a growing worldwide trend, doctors in the UK consider what used to be routine care—administration of nutrition and hydration, by artificial means if necessary—to be "treatment" which can be refused or denied.

  The UK’s Association of Catholic Women (ACW) which produced the ID cards, had sold nearly 26,000 by 2005.

"We were greatly concerned that ANH (artificial nutrition and hydration) was considered as ‘treatment’, and could be withdrawn if the patient was deemed to have a ‘poor quality of life,’ thus leading to death by starvation/dehydration," explained a spokesperson for the ACW.

  The card is a simple blue card stating: "In case of my admission to hospital please contact a Roman Catholic priest. I would like my nursing care to include fluids - however administered."

  Food and water, once considered basic humane care to be offered to every patient, now have increasingly been relegated to “medical treatment” and considered optional depending on a patient’s likelihood of recovery and/or future quality of life.

  UK doctors were warned in November that they may face prison sentences if they refuse to withdraw food and fluids from patients who have previously indicated they do not want medical treatment.

  Dr. Peter Saunders, head of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said at the time that the new government guidelines were not a concern for dying patients whose bodies could no longer assimilate nutrition.

“But we are concerned that patients will make unwise and hasty advance refusals of food and fluids without being properly informed about the diagnosis. It is too easy for patients to be driven by fears of meddlesome treatment and ‘being kept alive’, into making advance refusals that later might be used against them.”

  Dr Jacqueline Laing of London Metropolitan University, who called the measures an obvious “cost-saving” effort on behalf of the National Health, said the Act “inverts good medical practice by criminalizing medical staff who intervene to save the lives of their patients with simple cures and, in certain cases, even food and fluids.”

  Carrying a card requesting food and water in the event of hospitalization may not guarantee protection from the changing policies, as a 46 year-old British man suffering from a degenerative disease found last year.

  Leslie Burke, who has a neurological disorder that will eventually leave him paralyzed and unable to speak, was concerned that he would be denied  food and water once his disease progressed to the point that he could no longer speak for himself.

  The General Medical Council opposed Burke’s request for a guarantee that he would receive food and fluids until natural death occurred, saying it must reserve the right to withhold food and water from patients at a doctor’s discretion.

  Burke took his battle to the European Court of Human Rights after the British court system refused to grant him legal protection. The EU Court ruled against Burke’s request, saying there were adequate protections in place in British law that would prevent the premature removal of food and water.

  Alex Schadenberg, head of Canada’s Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, told LifeSiteNews.com at the time that the European court “erred significantly” in the decision, putting patients all over Europe at risk.

  Although doctors have always had the authority to determine if further treatment would be burdensome and futile, Schadenberg said, doctors are now being given the freedom to make such decisions based on cost effectiveness and patient “quality of life”, instead of purely medical considerations.

“Modern bioethics philosophy has rejected the concept of purely medical futility. The treatment is not considered futile; the patient is considered futile,” Schadenberg said.

  See related LifeSiteNews coverage:

  UK Doctors Face Jail if They Refuse to Euthanize Patients
  http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/nov/06112102.html

  UK Man Goes to European Court Asking that He not be Starved to Death in Hospital
  http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/may/06050301.html

  Euro Court Refuses To Guarantee Ill British Man Won’t Be Dehydrated to Death
  http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/aug/06080903.html