The Government has announced proposals to allow people to specify what treatment they want if they become seriously ill - at the same time as a Bill letting doctors help people die was thrown out by Parliament.

The Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, has announced consultation on legislation which would give legal force to so-called 'living wills'.

Lord Irvine: "Law is confusing and fragmented"

A living will could not instruct a doctor to end a patient's life, but would enable patients to refuse treatment or in some cases food, even if that would lead to their death.

The legislation could also allow relatives of patients who are unable to take their own decision to be allowed to authorise the withdrawal of treatment.

Introducing the consultation exercise in the House of Lords on Wednesday, the Lord Chancellor said the present law was confusing and fragmented and did not do enough to protect patients or their carers.

He insisted he was not authorising euthanasia, but was simply giving patients freedom to choose their treatment.

The Green Paper was published on the same day that a Bill aimed at allowing doctors to help pain-wracked patients die was overwhelmingly rejected by the House of Commons.

The Bill, put forward by Labour MP Joe Ashton, would have allowed someone suffering distress from a terminal illness of incurable condition to obtain a doctor's help to end their life.

Joe Ashton sponsored the Bill

Introducing the measure, Mr Ashton said his mother Nellie had Parkinson's disease for seven years before dying from the condition.

Opponents claimed that the measure was part of a "carefully orchestrated and calculated campaign" to change British laws which are designed to protect the terminally ill.

Mr Ashton said that strict conditions would have to apply under his measure before its provisions could be brought into play.

The Doctor-Assisted Dying Bill, put forward under the Ten Minute Rule procedure, was defeated by 234 votes to 89.

It followed the recent death of Annie Lindsell, 47, a motor neurone disease victim who had sought High Court approval for treatment that would relieve her suffering but speed her death.

She abandoned the case after her doctor agreed to give her the drugs cited in the hearing without a court order.

In the event, she died naturally without needing the drugs.
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