telegraph | The veteran Government adviser said pensioners
in mental decline are "wasting people's lives" because of the care they
require and should be allowed to opt for euthanasia even if they are not
in pain.
She insisted there was "nothing wrong" with people being helped to die for the sake of their loved ones or society.
The
84-year-old added that she hoped people will soon be "licensed to put
others down" if they are unable to look after themselves.
Her
comments in a magazine interview have been condemned as "immoral" and
"barbaric", but also sparked fears that they may find wider support
because of her influence on ethical matters.
Lady
Warnock, a former headmistress who went on to become Britain's leading
moral philosopher, chaired a landmark Government committee in the 1980s
that established the law on fertility treatment and embryo research.
A prominent supporter of euthanasia, she has previously suggested
that pensioners who do not want to become a burden on their carers
should be helped to die.
Last year the Mental Capacity Act came
into effect that gives legal force to "living wills", so patients can
appoint an "attorney" to tell doctors when their hospital food and water
should be removed.
But in her latest interview, given to the
Church of Scotland's magazine Life and Work, Lady Warnock goes further
by claiming that dementia sufferers should consider ending their lives
through euthanasia because of the strain they put on their families and
public services.
Recent figures show there are 700,000 people with
degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's in Britain. By 2026 experts
predict there will be one million dementia sufferers in the country,
costing the NHS an estimated £35billion a year.
Lady Warnock said:
"If you're demented, you're wasting people's lives – your family's
lives – and you're wasting the resources of the National Health Service.
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