There is a widely held belief that the withdrawal of live-saving measures, and what withdrawal of food administered via a PEG for someone who is going to die of an injury or illness and does not have any prospect of recovery. (Here is a paper in German discussing the topic.) Like in the case of someone in a permanent vegetative state.

In the UK, changes introduced in legislation recently mean that “judges will no longer need to be consulted when doctors and relatives of patients in a vegetative or minimally conscious state agree life-support treatment should end”.

I can only speak for myself – when Pádraig’s accident happened I was so dependent on the advice from doctors that I would almost have followed whatever they recommended. Had I done this, Pádraig would not be with us today.

A German judge once explained to me that a thorough, independent hearing guided by independent experts was necessary in all cases where the life of a patients was involved. This, she said, has to do with our history.