Clause 4 - Best interests
Mental Capacity Bill
9:30 am
Mr David Lammy (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Tottenham, Labour)
The hon. Lady will know that that matter has been established in common law. If she speaks to doctors and medics, she will learn that there is a fine line between care and treatment. Last night, I spoke to Dr. Andrews, the country's pre-eminent expert on permanent vegetative state, who is based at the institute in Putney. He said, ''Look, please let's not be simplistic about this; when we talk about nasogastric tubes—tubes into the stomach—the tubing itself is clearly treatment, but the food falls into the category of care.'' It is clear that there is a difficult dividing line there, which we can talk about in further detail.