Scottish Catholic Observer

Dr Walker said she is regularly contacted by distressed healthcare professionals and managers, who describe their experience of witnessing repeated instances of unofficial, active euthanasia in their local areas.

“The standards of medical ethics and of interpretation of existing legislation appear to vary greatly around the country and from one organisation to the next, even in the same local area,” Dr Walker said.

She also believes the misuse of the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), designed to improve palliative care for patients in the last stages of life, is leading to euthanasia.

“There is no reason to be suspicious when the LCP is being used in appropriate circumstances to a higher standard of care,” Dr Walker said  “If it is used out of context, then it could be used to the detriment of patients, for example a patient comes into a resuscitation bay and it is not always clear if a condition is acute and can be treated.”

Dr Walker puts many of the problems at the door of a lack of ethics in the application of what at face value is a good system for the terminally ill. “The problems come when an idol is made of the protocols. It is the same story with anything if you make an idol of it you lose common sense and critical faculties,” she said. “Sometimes, in addition to what is required by a protocol, which tends to assess for a single condition, you have to follow an instinct that there is something else wrong with a patient and there is nothing wrong with that. This is the art as well as the science of clinical practice.”

However Mr Macdonald of the Care not Killing Alliance, said his organisation did not see evidence of widespread euthanasia.

“We would not say it’s widely practised,” he said. “The pro-euthanasia lobby has claimed it is as an argument for legalising it but the palliative care doctors we have spoken to have told us that’s not the case. For example though there are cases of the LCP being abused if it’s implemented properly in the last hours of life that’s not euthanasia.”

Mr Macdonald went on to say they still concerned about the issues Dr Walters raised.

“Of course we share concerns over abuses,” he said. “Anecdotally we hear stories of certain care homes with questionable practices but generally we would not accept it’s widespread.”