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British Newspaper Claims 60,000 Patients Put on 'Death Pathway'

By MSN Now

British Newspaper Claims 60,000 Patients Put on 'Death Pathway'

January 1, 2013 Updated Jan 1, 2013 at 1:20 PM PDT

If you're looking for death panels, look across the Atlantic.

A British newspaper claims that 60,000 U.K. patients have been "put on death pathway without being told" -- a development it says was greeted by British politicians as "a fantastic step forward."

The pathway means doctors stop life-extending treatment and increase patients' sedation.

While the nation's health secretary defended the protocols, known as the Liverpool Care Pathway, as an opportunity to bring "hospice-style" care to hospitals, critics -- including the Daily Mail, which published the report -- contend that unwitting patients are dying without being informed of their opportunities for prolonging life -- and that even conscious patients are never informed of their alternatives.

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