Siblings focus on families of brain injury victims

Siblings focus on families of brain injury victims

10:58am Thursday 16th January 2014 in News By Haydn Lewis, Education reporter

THE bond between three sisters has led to a new study in to how the families of brain injury victims want their loved ones to be treated.

A study carried out by Prof Celia Kitzinger from the department of sociology at the University of York and her sister, Prof Jenny Kitzinger, at Cardiff Universitys school of journalism asked if families, who have severely brain-injured relatives, would consider terminal sedation.

Their sister, Polly, was severely brain injured in a car accident in 2009.

The pair are co-directors of the York-Cardiff Chronic Disorders of Consciousness Research Centre (CDoC) which explores the social and ethical challenges of the vegetative and minimally conscious state.

Prof Celia Kitzinger said: At the moment it is legal to allow people to die by withdrawing artificial nutrition and hydration, but that can mean watching a long, slow death which many relatives just cannot bear the thought of.

If a court is going to take a decision to allow someone to die, why not do it in a way thats less prolonged for the patient, or, if the patient is entirely unaware, then at least less distressing for their family?

There must be a more merciful way of allowing people to die. Its a message about being merciful and reducing suffering.

We suggest that the lived reality of the families facing these decisions should be taken into account and that other ways of bringing about the death of severely brain damaged patients should be given full ethical consideration.

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Siblings focus on families of brain injury victims