Doctors will be able to end the lives of patients with severe degenerative diseases or advanced dementia if new proposals from their leaders are accepted.
The British Medical Association has proposed new guidelines recommending that GPs be allowed to withdraw tubes supplying food and water to those who cannot feed themselves – even in cases where said patients could otherwise live for years.
The proposals were put forward in response to legal test cases in which judges ruled that qualified NHS staff and officials no longer required a court's permission to withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration from those patients who are incapacitated and unable to communicate or feed themselves.
