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Pro-lifers dispute human rights decision
Westminster, 6 October 2000--Pro-life lobbyists have objected to today's high court decision to allow food and fluid to be withdrawn from two female patients in the north of England.Paul Tully, general secretary of the Society for the Protection of
Unborn Children, said: "The decision of Lord Justice Butler-Sloss is
utterly appalling. She appears to have gone much further that the House
of Lords in the Bland
judgement and suggested that it is in the 'best interests' of these
patients to be killed. This judgement will appal anyone who supports
the notion of the Human Rights Act as a bulwark for the rights of the
weak, the disabled and the dependent against the power of the
establishment.
"The right to life of every severely disabled person and every terminally ill patient is gravely undermined by this judgement.
"The only positive point about the judgement is that Dame Elizabeth appears to have dismissed the suggestion from the barrister for the health trusts that the provision of extensive care and medical treatment amounts to inhuman or degrading treatment. This is scant comfort for the disabled and their families when they know that they may be told that it is no longer in their best interests to be kept alive."
