Doctors' legal position in treating temporarily incompetent patients.
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.
Hodgkinson
D W
DW
Stockport Acute Services NHS Trust, Stockport Infirmary.
Gray
A J
AJ
Dalal
B
B
Wilson
P
P
Szawarski
Z
Z
Sensky
T
T
Gillett
G
G
Yates
D W
DW
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*