A project giving people the right to choose to end their lives by refusing emergency medical care is currently being trialled in parts of Greater Manchester.

Cards designed to be kept in wallets will tell doctors how to access a list of instructions the patient has written about what care they want to receive.

All medics will be legally bound to follow their wishes.
A spokesman for Ashton Wigan and Leigh Primary Care Trust said that although the card could be appropriate in a minority of cases in Wigan, it would need "very careful consideration" before adoption here.

Around 10,000 cards were placed in GP surgeries, libraries and other public buildings across the county last month.

The Advanced Decision to Refuse Treatment cards have been introduced following a change in the law last month which gives people the right to make advance decisions to refuse medical care.

People who join the scheme will have to make a detailed statement about what treatment they want to refuse and under what circumstances.

This information will then be kept by a relative or GP.
Once a statement has been made, it will be legally binding until the individual changes it.

A spokesman for the Trust confirmed that it was not involved in this pilot.
She said: "We would want to look at it very carefully indeed before we would consider rolling it out in our borough.

"Patients and carers can, and do, change their minds about their wishes at any time in the course of an illness or the aftermath of an accident, and we certainly would not want them to be tied to a particular anticipated intention.

"However, the card may be very appropriate for a small number of individuals with specific conditions."

She added that Trust staff and borough GPs had done a lot of excellent work on their "end of life pathway" for people whose illness has reached an advanced and incurable stage.

But that scheme was totally different from the pilot being undertaken in Salford.