Forums Forums Wirral Information Law And Your Rights Living Wills

This was a topic on Radio 4 this morning. My friend who lives in Wirral made a Living Will with a clause that she did not want to be resuscitated in any circumstances. Having been prepared for a routine operation at theatre the anaesthetist refused to co-operate and her operation was cancelled. A new date was fixed only after a Living Will minus this clause was submitted.

No surgeon wants to let someone die on their table so I don't blame them.

Interesting topic though.

Medical staff do their job (generally, not the career-only money-making type) to help preserve, save and enhance life, not to stand back and watch someone die.

An anesthetist will spend 10+ years training to do their job, and every single operation whereby a general is administered, the patients life is in actually in their hands, one slight wrong decision and you could be brown bread. It is little wonder the anesthetist would bother their arse to take on a patient who obviously prefers to be a dead, and who they would be powerless to save.

Maybe that person should forfeit future medical care as well?

I agree with the comments made, however the person in question worked in a hospital and had seen some people resuscitated who did not have a good quality of life afterwards and this had an impact on her way of thinking.

I see both sides of this argument, but any sort of DNR order is designed to stop unnecessary suffering. My view is that it's at the expense of the unnecessary suffering of the doctor!

There are plenty of guidelines surrounding this but what I can say is that I have SEEN a case where a DNR order was attributed to a patients notes BY MISTAKE. Reason enough for them not to be in existence if you ask me.

Kind regards,
Ian