Doctors think it is their right to decide when to stop treatment.
So do patients and their families. Age Concern claimed to know of more than 100 similar cases that it promised to bring to the attention of Alan Milburn, the health secretary. At its annual conference, the British Medical Association resolved that junior doctors should not be coerced into signing DNR orders. It called upon its own ethics committee to consider whether doctors should be obliged to get prior written consent from patients and families before writing such orders. The Department of Health has since written to chief executives of all NHS trusts, instructing them to make sure that agreed resuscitation policies not only have patients' rights at their heart but are readily available to patients and their families.