Every year in Hospitals throughout Great Britain and Northern Ireland, thousands of elderly men and women are sentenced to a slow agonizing death from starvation and dehydration. 

Before he died in the Belfast City Hospital, my own Father was denied food for twenty five days. Toward the end of his ordeal, and without his families knowledge, he was also denied water, becoming so dehydrated that his tongue split bleeding into his parched mouth. His own blood had become the only liquid they could not withhold from him.

The reason that this is possible is that provision of food and water is not, as every right-thinking person would believe, considered basic care, but instead it is classified as treatment. This distinction allows Doctors to play God. To decide who will continue to exist, and who has been around too long for their own good. To justify this they use a very disturbing term," In the patients own best interests."

Food and water are not optional extras, they are vital to the well-being of the patient. Stopping food and water is an act of deliberate neglect intended to cause death, and should be recognized as such. If prisoners of war were denied food and water it would be considered a War Crime. If dogs or horses were put to death in this way there would be a national outcry, yet when it happens to the elderly and infirm no one seems to care.

This petition is calling on the Government to place food and water back where they ought to be, at the top of the list of basic care provision. Whether the patient is able to take these oraly, or requires artificial assistance, access to food and water is not a treatment, it is a right. Deny this ,and we deny the patients most basic Human Right. The Right to Life!

When someone is gravely ill there is always debate as to whether they will pull through or not. When food and water are withdrawn, all debate is over, that person will die no matter how strong their will to live. You have literally taken away their last hope. Now is your chance to give back that hope to thousands of vulnerable, and frightened patients. Please sign now.