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If you ask the wrong question, you'll get the wrong answer 19 Aug 2013 | 05:36 pm
There are two main and several subsidiary difficulties with this paper. 1 The first main problem is that the authors, in calling for a revolution in the way that withdrawal of treatment cases are dea...
Should religious beliefs be allowed to stonewall a secular approach to withdrawing and withholding treatment in children? 19 Aug 2013 | 05:36 pm
Religion is an important element of end-of-life care on the paediatric intensive care unit with religious belief providing support for many families and for some staff. However, religious claims used ...
Significance of past statements: speech act theory 19 Aug 2013 | 05:36 pm
In W v M, a judge concluded that M's past statements should not be given weight in a best interests assessment. Several commentators in the ethics literature have argued this approach ignored M's auto...
'In a twilight world'? Judging the value of life for the minimally conscious patient 19 Aug 2013 | 05:36 pm
The recent ruling from England on the case of M is one of very few worldwide to consider whether life-sustaining treatment, in the form of clinically assisted nutrition and hydration, should continue ...
The weight attributed to patient values in determining best interests 19 Aug 2013 | 05:36 pm
In W v M and Others (Re M) the Court of Protection considered whether withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration was in the best interests of a person in minimally conscious state. The Mental Ca...
The minimally conscious state and treatment withdrawal: W v M 19 Aug 2013 | 05:36 pm
This short comment on the Court of Protection decision in W v M draws attention to the primacy the judge gave to the preservation of life and discusses the relative lack of weight accorded to M's prev...
Is it better to be minimally conscious than vegetative? 19 Aug 2013 | 05:36 pm
In the case of Re M, summarised in the paper by Julian Sheather, Justice Baker faced the difficult task of weighing up objectively whether or not it was in Mâs best interests to withdraw artificial fe...
Withdrawing artificial nutrition and patients' interests 19 Aug 2013 | 05:36 pm
I argue that the arguments brought by Counsel for M to the English Court of Protection are morally problematic in prioritising subjective interests that are the result of ‘consistent autonomous though...
Best interests and the sanctity of life after W v M 19 Aug 2013 | 05:36 pm
The case of W v M and Others, in which the court rejected an application to withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration from a woman in a minimally conscious state, raises a number of profoundly impor...
Burdens of ANH outweigh benefits in the minimally conscious state 19 Aug 2013 | 05:36 pm
In the case of the minimally conscious patient M, the English Court of Protection ruled that it would be unlawful to withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) from her. The Court reasoned that...
