UK: renewed hope for Polish man from whom British NHS wanted to withdraw nutrition and hydration

There is renewed hope for “RS”, the middle-aged Polish man, referred to only by these initials, who entered a coma on 6 November after suffering a heart attack which left him without oxygen. The British NHS had decided to withdraw nutrition and hydration from him on Christmas Eve. His mother, however, arguing that he, as a practising Catholic, would have never wanted to be left dying this way, seized the Court of Appeal and today obtained the review of the case. The judges will now decide whether the first court sized by the family, the “Court of Protection”, was right in rejecting expert evidence according to which RS, if properly cared for, might recover to the extent of eventually becoming independent within his house. “Nutrition and hydration were reinstated, a first time, only after the intervention of the Polish Government which had sent a formal request to the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. The patient’s life support was then extended for a few more days to allow the European Court of Human Rights to decide whether the man could be repatriated to receive appropriate treatment as his mother and sisters had asked for”, explained Roger Kiska, spokesperson for the UK pro-life movement “Christian Concern”. “Unfortunately, the decision by the European Court that the matter was not within its competence paved the way for the withdrawal of life support, which is actually a form of euthanasia”.
Silvia Guzzetti