BMJ  2004;329:309 (7 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7461.309

News

Man wins battle to keep receiving life support

London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A terminally ill man who feared doctors might one day stop feeding him has won a landmark judgment ensuring that his wish for life supporting treatment will be respected.

Leslie Burke, aged 44, from Lancaster has degenerative cerebellar ataxia and is likely to lose the ability to communicate. He sought judicial review of the General Medical Council's 2002 guidance on withholding and withdrawing life prolonging treatment, arguing that it breached articles 2 and 3 of the European convention on human rights—the right to life and the right to be spared inhuman and degrading treatment.

Mr Burke objected to clauses in the GMC guidance that could permit doctors to withdraw artificial nutrition or hydration from a patient in cases where doctors judged that the patient's quality of life was very poor, even if a living will requested continued life support.

Mr Justice Mumby praised the GMC's overall guidance, calling it a . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

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