英伦广角 2011-10-01 法官的判定（打印版）

The family of M, a 51-year-old woman who was fiercely independent, very active according to her sister until she contracted a virus eight and a half years ago and became very severely brain damaged, they have been told she would not be allowed to die. Now this is a landmark ruling because although we've had families coming here in the past and asking judges to withdraw food and hydration from their loved ones, in essence allowing them to die, they have always been in a persistent vegetative state with no awareness of what's going on around them. The problem for Mr Justice Baker in this case, which he described as tragic and one with devastating consequences for the family of M, who we are not allowed to name to preserve the family's anonymity and dignity, was that she is in what was described as being a minimally conscious state.

Now that has only been a medical diagnosis since 2002. It's very difficult to define it exactly but what it means is that on occasion and erratically, the patient will show some kind of deliberate response. Now the family argued that M had no quality of life, no enjoyment, no dignity. They believe she feels pain and is suffering. They say she cannot communicate meaningfully. But the official solicitor appointed by the court on her behalf strongly opposed that. She said she understood the family genuinely loved M and were motivated by her best interests; but she argued that in fact M could possibly communicate by the use of a switch and could feel, respond to touch.

Now the family say that M made it very clear before she became ill that in fact she would never want to be reliant on others, to continue living a life dependent on others, even if she had mental faculties. But the judge in this case has decided that he simply cannot allow her food and hydration to be withdrawn. And part of this will be the problem with defining the state that patient M remains in. She's cared for in a nursing home in the north of England, but the judge has ruled that her family, despite being motivated by love for patient M, cannot be allowed to ask doctors to let her die.

英伦广角 2011-10-01 法官的判定（在线收听）