Chapter 12: Permanent Vegetative State
This is part of the online companion site to the book Medical Treatment: Decisions and the Law - The Mental Capacity Act in Action, edited by Christopher Johnston, written by members of 3 Serjeants' Inn and published by Bloomsbury Professional in 2010.
The site provides (1) updating material as it becomes available and (2) hyperlinks to website addresses given in the hard copy. The material is organised according to the book's chapter headings. Click on the chapter headings on the left-hand side to access the material for other chapters.
Updating material
Updating material will be added here as developments occur.
Hyperlinks
Paragraph 12.1 - Footnote 4:
...The British charity headway states now that ‘There are normally just less than 100 people in the UK in PVS at any one time.’ http://www.headway.org.uk/Coma-and-PVS.aspx .
Paragraph 12.1 - Footnote 16:
Legislation was initiated and passed unopposed in the Senate by a voice vote on Sunday 20 March 2005 to allow the federal courts to intervene in preventing the withdrawal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube. After summoning sufficient House members back from the Easter recess to provide a quorum, an identical bill was then passed in the House of Representatives at 12.42am on Monday 21 March 2005. President Bush was awakened shortly afterwards at his ranch in Crawford, Texas to sign the bill into law which he did while standing in a hallway at around 1.08am. In a speech later that day, President Bush declared: ‘… in extraordinary circumstances like this, it is wisest to always err on the side of life.’ http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/21/politics/21debate.html (21 March 2005) and http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/22/national/22bush.html (22 March 2005).
Paragraph 12.1 - Footnote 19:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5701289.ece (February 10, 2009).
Paragraph 12.1 - Footnote 21:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article3004892.ece (December 9, 2007).
Paragraph 12.3 - Footnote 12:
See also the ‘British Medical Association’s MCA tool kit’ http://www.bma.org.uk/images/MentalCapacityToolKit%20July2008_tcm41-175571.pdf; see paras 6.18, 8.18 and 8.19 of the MCA 2005 Code of Practice.
Appendix 12.1 - Reference 4:
http://www.bma.org.uk/ethics/index.jsp
Appendix 12.1 - Reference 11:
BMA. Euthanasia and physician assisted suicide: Do the moral arguments differ? London: BMA, April 1998. Available on the BMA website (http://www.bma.org.uk/ethics/index.jsp).
Appendix 12.2 - Reference 7:
BMA. The Mental Capacity Act 2005. Guidance for Health Professionals. London: BMA, March 2007; BMA. Medical treatment of adults who lack capacity: guidance on ethical and medico-legal issues in Scotland. London: BMA, October 2007. Both are available at: http://www.bma.org.uk/ethics/index.jsp