Kill the pain or the patient?

By JOE JENKENS A WOMAN WITH motor neurone disease has won the backing of the British Medical Association in her bid to use drugs to prevent extreme pain, thereby hastening her death, but has drawn criticism from ethics campaigners.
Annie Lindsell, 47, believes that during the final stages of the debilitating disease, which killed actor David Niven and England football manager Don Revie, she will feel as though she is living inside a coffin.
Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of ethics at the BMA, said: "She is asking for people to agree that if she gets to a stage where she is suffering or distressed, these symptoms can be treated even if the treatment may hasten her death. This is less radical than you might think. We would say you're having the treatment not to hasten death but to control symptoms and alleviate suffering. She may be saying she wants this contract with her doctor to be binding if she gets to a stage where she can no longer indicate her views. That would have a degree of sense."
John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children and a commentator on medical ethics, told the Herald that his organisation was "very concerned" about Miss Lindsell's case. He said: "Some of her comments seem to exhibit a lack of awareness of the prognosis of her condition."
Mr Smeaton pointed to Dr Nigel Sykes of St Christopher's Hospice, London, who said that sufferers of the disease do not experience "suffocating" sensations. Mr Smeaton added: "The issue is one of knowledge. People are entitled to have the full information."