Doctors' legal position in treating temporarily incompetent patients
Hodgkinson, D.W.; Gray, A.J.; Dalal, B.; Wilson, P.; Szawarski, Z.; Sensky, T.; Gillett, G.; Yates, D.W.
Bmj 311(6997): 115-118
1995
ISSN/ISBN: 0959-8138 PMID: 7613365 Document Number: 445262
Doctors in accident and emergency departments are sometimes presented with patients with potentially life threatening conditions who refuse to consent to treatment. The doctors then face a dilemma: to withhold necessary treatment or to act against a patient's express wishes. Two such cases are presented, and we asked a lawyer, two medical ethicists, a psychiatrist, and an accident and emergency physician to comment on the implications.