August 6, 2008 Wednesday 1ST Edition
Living wills law 'puts too much pressure on families'
BYLINE: Steve Doughty
SECTION: Pg. 25
＜以下家族の負担減のAff＞
LABOUR'S controversial 'living wills' law was severely criticised yesterday by the Whitehall watchdog appointed to help make it work.
Richard Brooks, who was head of the Office of the Public Guardian, also said the law - which was condemned as a means of legalising euthanasia by its opponents - is to be reviewed by ministers.
Mr Brooks said the Mental Capacity Act should be reformed and rewritten because of the delays, disputes and high costs it has piled on families as they try to cope with the affairs of incapacitated and elderly relatives.
The Act - which came into force last autumn - gives legal force to living wills, documents in which someone can set down how they should be treated if they become too ill to speak for themselves.
It also allowed them to appoint an attorney - someone with power to decide for them who could tell doctors to withdraw hospital food and water tubes.
But trouble in putting into effect the Lasting Powers of Attorney that convey such lifeand-death powers has hit tens of thousands of families.
In the past, families who need to take over the finances of, for example, an elderly relative with dementia who goes into a care home have been able to draw up an Enduring Power of Attorney which went instantly into effect.
However the new Lasting Powers of Attorney include complex safeguards which require a 23- page form and registration by the Office of the Public Guardian.
That has led to delays of up to six months before families can get control of finances. One family told the Daily Mail they spent £15,000 of their own money on care fees and other costs before gaining Lasting Powers of Attorney.
Mr Brook, who stepped down last month, said in June 'it was taking an average of 13 weeks against the target of a maximum of nine weeks to register LPAs that had no errors or omissions'.
Even without such delays, the time scales written into the law 'are often not what the customer expects or wishes to see when trying to deal with urgent issues around vulnerable people'.
The law also insists wronglyfilled in forms must be rejected.
An application costs £150, and where families have to apply a second time they must pay twice.
＜以下Neg＞
Opponents called the Mental Capacity Act a disaster.
Anti-euthanasia campaigner Elspeth Chowdharay-Best said: 'Labour was so determined to have a euthanasia law that it made it impossible for ordinary people to organise basic financial instruments.
The need to prevent abuse has led to a law so bureaucratic that people cannot get at their granny's bank account to pay her care home bills.'
A spokesman for the Alzheimer's Society blamed the difficulties on 'teething problems'.
09/03/11
SO HUMBLING;
Family of death-pact couple speaks out over their care
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 8
LENGTH: 267 words
THE family of a wealthy British couple who ended their lives together at a voluntary euthanasia clinic in Switzerland said they had both received "wonderful and humbling care".
Peter and Penelope Duff, from Bath in Somerset, died at the Dignitas clinic in Zurich on February 27.
Retired businessmen Mr Duff was suffering from colon and liver cancer and his 70-year-old wife had been suffering from another rare form of the disease, Gist (gastrointestinal stromal tumour) since 1992.
A family statement released yesterday said: "Their decision in no way reflected on the wonderful and humbling care they have received from their consultant, doctors and nurses, for which the family, and they, were so appreciative." The Duffs are the latest Britons to end their lives at Dignitas.
Although there is no suggestion of them being helped by anyone else to end their lives, their deaths will reopen the debate on whether voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide for the terminally ill should be allowed in Britain.
There have been a series of legal bids in recent years to clarify the law relating to the issue.
Multiple sclerosis sufferer Debby Purdy, who said she is ready to end her life if her condition becomes intolerable, lost a Court of Appeal bid last month to clarify the law.
British anti-euthanasia campaign group Care Not Killing said the Duffs' deaths did not make a case for legalising assisted suicide.
A spokesman said: "The fact remains that, if euthanasia was ever legalised in Britain, vulnerable and seriously ill people would come under pressure to end their lives prematurely."
written by Matsubayashi
Family’s burden
SQ:
１）経済的な負担
延命治療にお金がかかる。←evi
助からない可能性が極めて高い場合、そのお金を払うのは無駄である。
２）精神的な負担
家族が痛みや苦痛に苦しむ姿を側で見なければならない。
厚労省の意識調査では、延命治療について「やめた方がいい」という回答は一般の人７４％、医師８２％で、多くが苦痛緩和や自然な死を迎えることができる医療を望んでいる、という。
最終更新：2009年03月12日 11:59
