Lord Dholakia spoke with concern about the implications for the Conscientious Objection (Medical Activity) Bill, during its Second Reading in the House of Lords on Friday.
Stressing that "the existing medical and legal regulations work well, [and] strik[e] a sensible balance between allowing healthcare professionals to conscientiously object without abandoning their patients and causing distress to patients and their families," Lord Dholakia said: "[t]he Bill would undermine the Mental Capacity Act 2005."
Affirming his point, Lord Dholakia stated: "[i]n some situations I fear the Bill, if enacted, could lead to patients being abandoned by healthcare professionals. This could also have a detrimental impact on the families and loved ones of patients approaching the end of life at what is an already difficult time."
Declaring an interest as a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Choice at the End of Life, Lord Dholakia stated: "I support the right of healthcare professionals to refuse to participate in a hands-on capacity in specific medical activities," adding cogently, "and I am confident that this right to conscientious objection is well established within current medical laws and protocols."
To emphasise the implications of the Bill Lord Dholakia stressed: "[t]hose decisions should be respected in a timely manner." "It would," he said, "be completely unacceptable for a patient approaching the end of life to have to continue treatment they did not want while awaiting transfer to a palliative care or other team of healthcare professionals that did not object to their decision; and it would be completely unacceptable for the patient’s family to have to watch them receiving this unwanted treatment."
Quoting the cases of Mrs N and Paul Briggs, Lord Dholakia said: "it has taken huge efforts by their family members, sometimes in the face of objection by professionals, to get their cases heard by the Court of Protection."
Highlighting their families' struggle for permission to withdraw treatment, at court the daughter of Mrs N said: “I cannot emphasise enough how much the indignity of her current existence is the greatest contradiction to how she thrived on life and, had she been able to express this, then without a doubt she would;" similarly Paul Briggs' wife wrote “I love my husband but he is dead in all but his body. I don’t know when I will ever lay him to rest in peace. That’s a limbo no one should be in.”
Finishing off with concern and compassion for all those involved, Lord Dholakia stated: "It must have been incredibly difficult for them to see their loved ones suffer over a period of years, receiving treatment that they did not believe they would ever have wanted."
Additionally, Lord Dholakia pointed out the further problems the families have: "[e]ven when the Court of Protection has decided that withdrawing treatment is in the best interests of the patient, some families have to struggle to find healthcare facilities where the staff members do not conscientiously object to their decision."
