Patients 'should not expect NHS to save their life if it costs too much'

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Guidelines (Nice) has ruled for the first time that saving a life cannot be justified at any cost, in a review of its guidelines. It rejected the so-called "rule of rescue" which stipulates that people facing death should be treated regardless of the costs. The rule is based on the natural impulse to aid individuals in trouble.

The ruling contradicts the advice of Nice's Citizens Council, which offers advice from a representative sample of the general public, and said that a rule of rescue was an essential mark of a humane society. The report said that where individuals are in "desperate and exceptional circumstances" they should sometimes receive greater help than can be justified by a "purely utilitarian approach".

Nice defended its ruling last night saying that the Citizens Council provided useful input to its decisions but that the organisation's role was to determine how best to allocate the health service's limited resources...

[the inevitable result of government run health care, where 'general public' does not mean customer]

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