Severely disabled people who are unable to communicate are at greater risk of being dehydrated to death because of a court judgment allowing artificial hydration to be withdrawn from a man in a “minimally conscious state”, anti-euthanasia groups have warned.
They are concerned that a ruling to end the life of PC Paul Briggs, a Gulf War veteran left severely brain damaged by a motorcycle accident, could set a precedent for legal killings of greater numbers of disabled people.
A joint statement from Alert, the anti-euthanasia pressure group, and Distant Voices, a disability rights group opposed to euthanasia, described the ruling by the Court of Protection in Manchester on Tuesday as “bad news”.
