14th December 2000 Manchester Coroner, Leonard Gorodkin , must seriously consider the fact that surgeons deliberately killed three month old 'Mary' Attard, who died during her conjoined sister 'Jodie's' life-saving operation, at St. Mary's Hospital, Manchester on 9th November. Disabled people from around the UK have been campaigning for the Attard twins equal rights to life since their case went to court, and made a submission to the Coroner, for the public inquest into 'Mary's' death, due to take place this Friday 15th Dec 2000. Representatives from the group will attend the inquest, although the Coroner has already refused permission to question the witnesses and is denying 'Mary' the chance of an independent advocate. "Even through the operation which killed 'Mary' Attard was made lawful, we believe St. Mary's Hospital were not legally relieved of their duty of care to 'Mary' Attard, (the so-called 'weaker' twin) and was still under a legal duty to explore life-saving treatment. We want the coroner to consider whether much proactive effort was made by the hospital to explore life-saving treatments for 'Mary', and if not to declare murder as the cause of her death." "The Court Of Appeal Judgement shows that St. Mary's Hospital did very little to see if 'Mary' Attard could have been saved, for example by a heart and lung transplant, simply because they perceived her predicted quality of life to be too poor due being conjoined and having other impairments. As disabled people we believe impairment does not determine quality of life, or excuse killing. We believe right from the start the intention was killing 'Mary' by separation, not exploring how she might be saved either conjoined or separately." Our full submission which include questions we want asked during Mary's Inquest can be found here : http://www.johnnypops.demon.co.uk/poetry/websubmission.htm * We are independent disabled people campaigning for equal rights to life and justice for all disabled people. We are not affiliated to any Pro-Life or religious groups. * Our rep Simone Aspis will be available for interview. Please page : 01523 490658. |