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Act Now - write to your MP about advance decisionsThe Mental Capacity Act covers a range of issues relating to decision-making on behalf of adults who have lost mental capacity at some point in their lives or where the incapacitating condition has been present since birth. The sections of the Act relating to patient choice at the end of life were enacted in October 2007. Prior to this, under common law, people could use a living will to refuse certain treatments at the end of life in advance of a loss of capacity. The Act changes the name of living wills to advance decisions and puts them on a a statutory footing. This is a significant step forwards for patient choice and control at the end of life, thanks in part to the significant majority of MPS who voted for the Mental Capacity Act. However, there is more that needs to be done to extend and protect patient choice. Specifically, a system for recording and transferring people's wishes is urgently required. At present there is no central registration facility for advance decisions. Unless the healthcare professionals treating the patient are made aware of an advance decision by a relative, friend or GP, an incapacitated patient's wishes could be overlooked. Good MPs care about their constituents views, consequently your support is vital in bringing about change. Please contact your MP to ask that the Government does more to promote advance decisions and that they introduce a system to ensure that people's wishes as set out in their advance decisions are recorded. To achieve maximum impact it is important that you express your desire to see change in your own words. To email your MP, please visit http://www.writetothem.com Act Now - write to your MP about assisted dyingChoice, control and dignity are recurring themes in the current debate about the future of the NHS and end-of-life care more specifically. Government clearly acknowledges that people want to make their own decisions about healthcare as evidenced by the Mental Capacity Act and the End of Life Care Strategy. However, if choice and control are genuinely to be put at the heart of end-of-life policy making, the law must change to allow terminally ill adults the option of an assisted death within strict safeguards. The law at present prevents this choice. As a result, many people seek to take control of the manner and timing of their death in other ways. While some make an advance decision to refuse treatment, or refuse food and water, others take more desperate and dangerous measures such as attempting to commit suicide, asking a loved one to help them die (so called 'mercy killing') or travelling overseas to have an assisted death. Surveys (Ward and Tate 1994, Seale 2006) consistently show that doctors are already assisting their patients to die in the UK. These practices usually take place below the law, without any safeguards. Therefore, the choice is not between permitting and preventing medically assisted dying. It is between regulating assisted dying and allowing terminally ill people to discuss their fears openly, or allowing 'underground' practices to continue without any safeguards or transparency. How we care for the dying is an indicator of how we treat all people who need care at some point in their lives: it is a measure of society. Ignoring the calls for a change in the law to allow terminally ill, mentally competent adults the right to choose a medically assisted death prevents a group of terminally ill people from having what they see as a good, dignified death, and denies many more the peace of mind of knowing that the option is there. The evidence shows that assisted dying can be legislated for safely, and that this provokes improvements in palliative care. As a society we can no longer bury our heads in the sand. We must face up to the fact that it is time for change. Good MPs care about their constituents views, consequently your support is vital in bringing about change. Please contact your MP to ask them for their views on the need to give terminally ill adults the option of an assisted death, within strict safeguards. To achieve maximum impact it is important that you express your desire to see change in your own words. To email your MP, please visit http://www.writetothem.com
Act Now- defend choiceIt is vital that Dignity in Dying and our supporters respond to letters in the press or information on websites written by people campaigning against us. These articles are often misleading and discredit our campaign. If you come across any opposition, please let us know so that we can respond. Contact 020 7479 7730 or email info@dignityindying.org.uk
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