Letter
Who decides whether the patient is mentally incapacitated?
Cite this as:
BMJ
1998;317:280.1
- Wai-Ching Leung, Senior registrar in public health medicine
- Department of Public Health, Sunderland Health Authority, Sunderland SR3 4AF
EDITOR —Gadd highlighted that patients have the right under common law to make advanced refusals, while they have the capacity to do so, of treatments when incapacitated.1 However, the case laws on which this right is based also illustrate the complexities in judging the patient's mental capacity.
In Re T the Court of Appeal held that an advanced written refusal of blood transfusion by a mentally …
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