LONDON (CWN) — Speaking at a meeting of the Royal Society of Medicine, a respected neuroscientist said that euthanasia has become part of the “standard way of dying” in Great Britain.
Patrick Pullicino says that the Liverpool Care Pathway—a protocol under which food and water are withdrawn from patients whose death is deemed imminent—is now routinely used with elderly patients who could recover. Pullicino, professor of clinical neurosciences at the University of Kent and former chairman of the Department of Neurology and Neurosciences at New Jersey Medical School, said that “pressure on beds and difficulty with nursing confused or difficult-to-manage elderly patients” has led to a situation in which euthanasia has become “part of the standard way of dying, as it is now associated with 29 per cent of NHS [National Health Services] deaths”.