title: Doctors' legal position in treating temporarily incompetent patients.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Stockport Acute Services NHS Trust, Stockport Infirmary.
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Hodgkinson
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dalal
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Szawarski
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sensky
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gillett
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Yates
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication; D026686:Beneficence; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000628:therapy; D062787:Drug Overdose / Q000628:therapy; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016743:Mental Competency; D008875:Middle Aged; D026706:Paternalism; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D013406:Suicide, Attempted; D016312:Treatment Refusal / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*