Do not resuscitate orders have been issued for people with learning disabilities who contract COVID-19, a charity in the UK has revealed.
The Royal Mencap Society, an organization that works with people with learning disabilities, said they received reports in January that people with learning disabilities had been told they would not be resuscitated if they were to fall ill with the virus.
According to The Guardian, “The Care Quality Commission said in December that inappropriate Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) notices had caused potentially avoidable deaths last year.
“DNACPRs are usually made for people who are too frail to benefit from CPR, but Mencap said some seem to have been issued for people simply because they had a learning disability. The CQC is due to publish a report on the practice within weeks.”
The revelations come as ministers face increasing pressure for their decision not to give people with learning disabilities priority for vaccinations, despite research from Public Health England revealing they died with coronavirus at a rate 6.3 times higher than the general population during the first wave.
Individuals with severe or profound learning disabilities have been placed in Group Six in the vaccine priority list — while people with a mild or moderate learning disability are not being prioritised at all.
Josh Williamson, pastor at Newquay Baptist Church described the Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation measure as a “passive form of eugenics.”
“Instead of actively seeking to eradicate certain disabilities, hospitals are now engaged in a practice that stands by an doesn’t actively preserve the life of those with learning difficulties.
“When a nation moves away from a biblical worldview this is the kind of wickedness we can expect. First, they try to murder those with disabilities in the womb via abortion, now they let them perish in hospital.
Pastor Williamson went on to say, “Our nation needs to rediscover the truth that all human life is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), and that all people are wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13-14).”