I am writing to you from the United Kingdom, because I urgently need your help to save the life of a man who is currently being dehydrated and starved to death in a UK hospital, by order of the court. Time is running out for him and every single voice helps. 

Thanks to a gagging order imposed by the court, I am not allowed to tell you his name or anything which might reveal his identity,  only his initials - RS, and that he is a Polish Catholic.

RS suffered a heart attack in November and a few days after he was admitted to hospital, the staff concluded that it was in his best interests to withdraw all life-sustaining treatment. His wife was in agreement, but his birth family, including his mother and siblings strongly wished to preserve his life and so, as is the case in English law, the decision as to whether or not RS lives or dies, was left in the hands of a secular judge.

RS is not on a ventilator and is breathing unaided. Unless there is urgent intervention he will die of dehydration and starvation.

The Polish government has intervened and given RS a diplomatic passport and a helicopter is ready and waiting to transport him to his home country where he can be cared for. 

There are many scandalous aspects about this case, one being that this is not a course of action that RS would have consented to.

As I said above, RS was a professed Catholic with strong pro-life views who attended Mass every week. Catholic ethics do not hold that  the provision of food and water constitutes ‘medical treatment’, giving people what they need to live, is neither extraordinary or burdensome but basic care.

There is nothing to indicate that RS deviated from his firm Catholic beliefs, however the judge has disregarded all the testimony of his birth family, in favor of his wife, who is distressed by his condition and states that RS had told her that he didn’t want to be a burden.

This is understandable. None of us want to be a burden to our families, but this is a feeling that needs to be challenged. We are all dependent on other people to a greater or lesser extent and a person who expresses a fear about being a burden, requires reassurance.

A fear about being a burden, which we all share, should not be used as an excuse to dehydrate and starve someone to death particularly when they have only been in hospital for a short time.

What is happening to RS is not in accordance with his religious faith and pro-life stance and this is not what he would choose for himself.

Many people will now be very worried as a result of this decision.

As was the case with little Tafida Raqeeb, it looks as though the hospital may have been overly pessimistic about RS’ prospects. There is a chance that he could improve. 

A video taken of RS on Christmas Day by his relatives, demonstrates that his condition may have improved since his initial injury. This video and the accompanying testimony of two expert neurologists who have seen it, has been rejected by the judge.

The  judge has also refused to allow the Polish Consul General to visit his countryman with a Polish doctor to examine him as he lies dying. 

Polish media has published this video, together with a timeline of all the actions taken by the Polish government in support of the patient and many  interviews with his family which shed light on the situation, but due to the reporting restriction, I am unable to share this with you without incurring a prison sentence.  

Another scandal is that an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights has failed on a technicality. According to the Christian Legal Centre who are assisting the family, the judge presiding over the appeal, Mr Grozev, “was a long-time member of the George Soros funded Open Society Foundation, which advocates for the type of euthanasia being utilised in the RS case, beefore he became an ECHR judge”.

Starving and dehydrating RS to death is disgusting and depraved. Repatriating RS will cause him no harm and cost the National Health Service nothing. It will free up a bed for another person.  Why are the UK courts so determined to force people to die against their wishes? 

P.S. Polish media has a lot of information about this case, but UK citizens like myself are limited in what we can report. 

Poland has a Catholic majority and this  is causing outrage there.  Britain is being slated in the comments section of many of their media reports. This affair is straining the relationship between our two countries. Under instructions from the President, the Polish Secretary of State  summoned the British Ambassador for a meeting about RS  which the Secretary of State later tweeted was ‘difficult’.

RS’s legal team have argued that the UK is in breach of our obligations under  the Vienna convention. RS must be allowed to return home to his birth family. And now that a diplomatic passport is on its way to RS, the UK government really has no excuse. We must keep up the national and international pressure.