Parents who believe in miracles 'torturing' dying children, doctors warn (UK)

[FarCenter]

Terminally ill children are subjected to needless suffering amounting to “torture” by parents who refuse to allow the withdrawal of treatment because of their religious beliefs, leading doctors have claimed.


Parents who trust in divine intervention, even after doctors say there is no hope of survival, are putting their children through aggressive but futile treatments, they said.

In an article published in the Journal of Medical Ethics they warned that families with deeply held hopes for a “miraculous” recovery were increasingly being allowed to “stonewall” medical opinion.

The doctors, from Great Ormond Street Hospital, called for an overhaul of the legal system to reduce the weight given to parents’ religious beliefs in such cases.

Critics have accused the authors of attempting to “impose” secular values on society, irrespective of religious affiliations.

Unusually, the warning is contained in an article jointly written by specialist doctors from the neonatal intensive care unit at Great Ormond Street in London — Dr Joe Brierley and Dr Andy Petros — and the hospital’s main chaplain, the Rev Jim Linthicum.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9473093/Parents-who-believe-in-miracles-torturing-dying-children-doctors-warn.html

[Amak8]

1. Our long term budget problems come down to 1 thing: cost of care for the last year of life.

Pull the plug on granny. She ain't happy.

[FarCenter]

2. Also on problems at birth and on chronically ill/disabled

Very little of the medical expenses go to people who are injured or ill and who are actually healed or cured.