Terminally ill Briton wins right to life

A terminally ill British man who faces a lingering death from a progressive brain disease won the right yesterday to force doctors to feed him once he becomes too ill to eat and drink for himself.

The High Court ruling could prompt a change in medical guidelines which currently state doctors can withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) from terminally ill patients.

Mr Justice Munby backed 44-year-old Leslie Burke, who suffers from cerebellar ataxia and who brought the case because he feared doctors would allow him to die of thirst.

Mr Burke, of Lancaster, northwest England, feared ANH would be withdrawn when his body became incapable but that he would have sufficient mental capacity to be aware of the pain and extreme distress of such a death.

The judge said the General Medical Council's guidance on the issue was essentially a "compelling piece of work" but added it was "vulnerable to criticism" in a number of areas.

Mr Munby said the guidelines wrongly placed the emphasis on a patient's right to refuse treatment, rather than a right to require treatment to continue. He also said the guidelines failed to sufficiently acknowledge the heavy presumption in favour of life-prolonging treatment and failed to spell out the legal requirements that doctors get prior approval from judges if ANH is withdrawn.

The council said in a statement it welcomed Mr Munby's ruling which made clear "doctors are not obliged to provide treatment that is futile, or places an intolerable burden on the patient".

"It is our stated position that in cases where there is disagreement over the care of a patient, the courts should be approached for a ruling."