A judge's view of life and death

This prompted by a short piece in Saturday's DT headed up, rather misleadingly, as is the way with the DT: 'Judge: Only God can end patient's life'.

I write, as a fully paid up supporter of the 'Dignity in Dying' campaign (see reference 1), as a life-long atheist and as someone who is not usually keen on the way that judges and lawyers are pushing into areas which I would rather they stayed out of.

We have a subject whom I call X.  He appears to be a middle aged man whose brain is damaged and who has sunk into a minimally conscious state following a heart attack. He is, or at least was, a devout Muslim. Many Muslims share with many Christians a belief that life is sacred and that the giving and taking of it is the exclusive preserve of the deity.

X is on life support and the hospital, probably St. George's Tooting, thought that the time had come to turn life support off. Without having access to the detail, I think that they were probably right about that.

However, X does not appear to have left any instructions covering the case, while his relatives want life support to continue, to the point of fighting the matter through the courts.

Now while I think that they are wrong, I think the judge was right to rule in their favour. In the absence of instructions from X, I think that the views of the relatives should ordinarily trump those of the doctors or the accountants. It seems unlikely that X is suffering and prolonging his life is not causing further suffering, so if his relatives want to carry on, so be it, at least for now. The rest of us just have to carry the expense, just as we have to carry those arising from people who smoke or drink themselves to death. Or who are addicted to climbing mountains without ropes. That is what a national health service is all about.

PS: I do not think that the very remote chance that someone in such a state will return to life bears on the matter. It can be put aside.

Reference 1: http://www.dignityindying.org.uk/.