The authors speak of \u2018safeguards\u2019 to ensure that vulnerable people are not put at risk and reference the provisions of the \u2018Meacher Bill\u2019. Safeguards on paper, however, are worthless unless they can be consistently, universally and comprehensively translated into practice.<\/p>\n
It is a tragic irony that on the day the authors\u2019 article was published, news headlines were dominated by the deaths of three vulnerable adults in Care. In spite of every written policy, protocol, and approved practice, their reality was tragically different. <\/p>\n
These were not isolated incidents; we have only to think of the hundreds of avoidable deaths in the Mid-Staffs hospital scandal, abuse of residents with learning disabilities in Eldertree Lodge and \u2018systemic biases contributing to unequal mortality outcomes in ethnic minority women and women facing multiple problems and deprivation\u2019. <\/p>\n
We can add to this, the recent experience of many elderly care home residents in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic who were given DNACPR notices without proper protocols being followed. <\/p>\n
Human lapses and failings build upon one another until catastrophic outcomes ensue\u2026a process that, in too many instances, no amount of assumed monitoring or paper safeguards has been able to capture, never mind stop.<\/p>\n
What can possibly give us confidence that similar safeguards will provide a better outcome if the law on assisted suicide were to be changed?<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n "We must not gamble with vulnerable people's lives." Our adviser on medical ethics has responded to calls for 'doctor assisted dying'.<\/p>\n Read the full response at https:\/\/t.co\/ds1sDdkFGz<\/a>.<\/p>\n — The Church of England (@churchofengland) September 14, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n
– Revd Dr Brendan McCarthy<\/p>\n