Latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show that the number of deaths attributed to Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia continues to rise. 1 in 8 of all deaths in England and Wales were caused by dementia in 2018. For women over 80 the figure rises to 1 in 4. A defining [...]
MDMD’s Campaigns and Communication Manager, Keiron McCabe, breaks down the new Clinically-Assisted Hydration and Nutrition Guidance from the British Medical Association Recently, writing in the Daily Mail, Dr Max Pemberton criticised the new British Medical Association’s (BMA) “Clinically-assisted nutrition and hydration (CANH) Guidance”, for allowing “one Facebook post [to] be enough to bring about your [...]
The BBC report on the ruling by the Supreme Court that legal permission will no longer be required to end care for patients in a long-term permanent vegetative state. The decision applies to patients who are being kept alive by artificial means such as tube feeding and hydration. It means that when family and doctors [...]
The BBC report the case of 81 yr old Brenda Grant who was kept alive for 22 months by artificial feeding, against the instructions in her Advance Decision, (AD), because the AD had been mislaid in her medical notes. The case is horrifying. People write ADs in order to refuse treatment at the end of [...]
The Daily Mail recently reported a case of a 74 year old woman in a minimally conscious state, whose daughter has won a court case to have her mother's life support turned off. The NHS Trust involved, acting in the patient's "best interests", wished to continue treatment, but this was over-ruled by the judge. It [...]
In a landmark ruling a judge has ruled that in future, in decisions concerning the withdrawal of life-support, including artificial feeding and hydration, a judge's consent is no longer required in cases where medical opinion and relative's wishes agree that the cessation is in the patient's best interests. The story is reported widely, including by [...]
An interesting scientific study of attitudes in UK and USA towards end of life care and assisted dying in the face of worsening dementia, was published in April 2017 in the peer reviewed on-line journal Plos One: Clarke G, Fistein E, Holland A, Barclay M, Theimann P, Barclay S (2017) Preferences for care towards the [...]
Dementia is now the leading cause of death in England and Wales. How can we ensure we don't suffer from it for longer than we wish? Medically Assisted Suicide is one option chosen by a few. In the UK those choosing this option need to arrange appropriate help in Switzerland, as it is not legal [...]
Today the Mail on Sunday published an article about the father of an MDMD supporter who ended his life at Dignitas. Penny's father Ron Hall suffered from early stage dementia. The psychiatric assessment to ensure he still had mental capacity to make the life ending decision was done by MDMD's associate coordinator, Colin Brewer. Interestingly, [...]
A BBC investigation attempted to find out how many minimally conscious patients were being kept alive in the UK. All the UK health authorities were asked, but only about one quarter were able to provide data. Those that did revealed 105 cases. Given the poor response, it seems reasonable to estimate that the total number [...]