Forcing 23 month-old Alfie Evans to die by starvation “is not killing,” Dr. Ranj Singh argued on U.K.’s “This Morning” ITV program Friday, Express reports.
Withdrawing life-support and refusing to allow Alfie’s parents to take him home, feed and care for him, is, instead merely “redirecting care,” Dr. Singh said:
“This is not the killing of a child - this is redirecting care to make them more comfortable.”
In Alfie’s case, redirecting care to make him “more comfortable” means denying him food, water and life support.
The UK government has legal rights to dictate the medical treatment of anyone who makes the mistake of going to one of their death centers, I mean hospitals.
Furthermore the UK government has the legal right to prevent you from leaving the prison, I mean country, for medical treatment.
The UK is just like Cuba on this issue of socialized medicine.
Now I know why all the hippopotami died in the UK--the NHS got them, and not the Ice Age as creationists claim.
News reports say that Brits cannot speak out against the NHS for fear of retaliation.
The NHS is the UK's Mueller--try speaking out against him and your home will be raided in the wee hours....
My fathers family came over here from the UK and plied their trade (coal mining) in Pennsylvania. They did stuff in their culture that was very reminiscent of British culture but they always loved this country for all its freedoms
This is actually complete tripe from start to finish, as I expect CMG knows perfectly well.
The UK government has no right whatsoever to dictate anyone's treatment.
But hey! Why spoil a good story with facts?
Alfie was treated in Intensive Care for around a year before doctors decided that no more could be done for him.
His parents were allowed, as all patients and/or carers are, to get a second opinion, which they did, and then, I believe, a third.
Even the doctors from Rome agreed that no more could be done for Alfie.
Whatever was going to happen in Rome, it was not a medical cure, or even medical treatment.
Any patient in Britain has the absolute right to discharge himself from hospital and go where he wants unless he has been certified mentally incapable.
The problem for Alfie is that as a minor there are rules preventing parents from harming their children and these IMO have been used inappropriately in this case.
However, there is no possibility of Alfie having been deprived of water without his parents' consent, which obviously would not have been given.
I hope that the furore that has surrounded Alfie will lead to parents' rights over their children's treatment being reinforced.
I cannot see any harm in Alfie being sent out of the country for his final days if that is what his parents wanted.
In typical UK politically correct fashion, the best the government could do while starving Alfie to death, was threaten his parent's supporters with prosecution.
"Merseyside Police warned supporters of Alfie's family that their social media posts were being monitored over reports that Alder Hey doctors were being hit with abuse."
Oh I say CMG, are you now bringing Her Royal Personage into this? Don’t you know that it’s to painful to watch. This is what happens when you attain a higher standing as opposed to the commoners.
Yeah, you're right.
It is a hate crime to suggest there is something wrong with the NHS or socialized medicine.
Do you think that Islam will finish off Europe?
The welfare burden will bankrupt them, won't it?
It bankrupted us.
The refugees can just kick the door in....
Don't waste your breath, Martin: people come here with their preconceived prejudices about the NHS and the facts won't dislodge those. That doesn't stop me being amazed by the amount of misinformation propagated here about such sad cases.
Socialism overall is Europe’s poison pill... but they have lived with it for so long, they are comfortable with it. In other words, they have traded their fundamental freedoms for a socialist playbook.
I totally believe that there are two worlds out there... the one that craves power, but total power develops into brutality. Then there is the envisioned world of Love, but love without power is mere sentimentality. So what do you do? You blend it man! You don’t bar parents from attempting to provide for their kid, you don’t make them wards of the state, nor do you have presidents that broadcast to you that dying is the best option for the sick then legislate a health care system around it... that isn’t my world. Mine is what my ancestors did, it’s a blessing to work and earn a living every day of your life till you can’t do it anymore... and hopefully you drop dead then.
Apparently, we are getting information in the American press that differs from what the Brits are getting.
Here is from the American Spectator, a conservative American Catholic site:
Though his case was simple — set my son free to seek treatment elsewhere — and though he was granted hearing after hearing with “red judges” like Mr. Justice Hayden and legal luminaries like Sir Andrew McFarlane, the answer was always the same. Acquiescence in the pleas of Alfie’s parents wouldn’t have cost the NHS or the British taxpayer a farthing, yet Alfie’s doctors and the hospital didn’t even consider releasing him. Even when the Pope interceded and transportation was provided to move him to an Italian hospital that was ready to admit him, it somehow continued to be in “Alfie’s interest” to remain hostage to the NHS.
If you don’t understand why the NHS and British courts refused, you don’t get socialized medicine. It is not, nor has it ever been, about health care. It’s about power. Once a government — any government — takes control of your health care, they own you and your children. Alfie’s parents and the British public had for months demanded Alfie’s release just to seek treatment by doctors competent enough to figure out what was wrong with him. But, for a socialized system, that’s dangerous. It implies that an individual Brit has rights not bestowed by the state.