Conscience Project
www.consciencelaws.org
NEWS RELEASE
ADVISORY BOARD
Janet Ajzenstat, BA, MA,
PhD
Dept. of Political Science,
McMaster University,
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Shahid Athar, MD
Clinical Associate Professor
of Medicine & Endocrinology,
Indiana School of Medicine,
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
J. Budziszewski, PhD
Professor,
Departments of
Government & Philosophy,
University of Texas,
Austin, Texas, USA
Dr. John Fleming,
BA, ThL (Hons), PhD
Director, Southern Cross
Bioethics Institute,
Adelaide, Australia
Dr. Henk Jochemsen, PhD
Director, Lindeboom Institute,
Center for Medical Ethics,
Amsterdam, Netherlands
David Novak, AB, MHL, PhD
Chair of Jewish Studies,
University of Toronto,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Lynn D. Wardle, JD
Professor of Law,
J. Reuben Clark Law School,
Brigham Young University,
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
____________
PROJECT TEAM
Sean Murphy
Administrator
Michael Markwick
Human Rights Specialist
5 June, 2003
1155 PM PST
For Immediate Release
Court Puts Health Care Workers on the Spot
A recent decision by the Supreme Court of Victoria makes it lawful to cause the death of patients by starvation and dehydration. The court has classified nutrition and hydration not as care, but as 'treatment' that can by refused by a patient or proxy. Australian health care workers who find this morally repugnant may now find themselves in a difficult position.
"There are strong ethical traditions that identify nutrition and hydration as basic care that is owed to any human being," explained Sean Murphy, Administrator of the Protection of Conscience Project. "Those who work within these traditions would no more deprive patients of food and water
than take their beds and blankets."
The decision in Melbourne involved a 68 year old woman suffering from a fatal form of dementia known as Pick's Disease, and has spent the past three years in a vegetative state.
Author Wesley J. Smith cites the case of Marjorie Nighbert, not terminally ill, who was admitted to a Florida nursing home following a stroke. Her feeding tube was removed on instructions from her brother. As she began to feel the effects of dehydration and hunger she begged, "Please feed me . . . I’m hungry, I’m thirsty." Nursing staff secretly slipped her small amounts of food and water. The case was eventually reviewed by a judge, who ordered the process continued. She died in April, 1995.
"Even if this is considered acceptable public policy," said Murphy, "dissenting health care workers and institutions should not be forced to participate in what they may consider to be judicially authorized euthanasia."
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