Clarification

doi:10.1136/bmj.39493.410498.1F

BMJ 2008;336:405 (23 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39493.410498.1F

Letters

Mental Capacity Act

Clarification

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Nicholson et al say in their article that, except when a courtof protection order—a consequence of which is the deprivationof liberty—is in place, the Mental Capacity Act cannotbe used to give care involving deprivation of liberty (see codeof practice for details).¹

This is not necessarily correct, and following this advice maymake readers believe that they may not give life saving treatmententailing deprivation of liberty for physical illness to a personwithout mental capacity and without an existing court orderwhen it is lawful and necessary to do so. Section 6.52 of thecode of practice of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 explains theinterpretation of "deprivation of liberty" derived from EuropeanCourt of Human Rights judgments.² Section 50 paragraph (2) ofpart 2 chapter 2 of the Mental Health Act 2007 amends the MentalCapacity Act 2005 specifically to provide for situations whereit . . . [Full text of this article]

Peter Simmons, consultant psychiatrist

¹ Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 4HQ

PSimmons@doctors.org.uk

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

Assessing mental capacity: the Mental Capacity Act: Timothy R J Nicholson, William Cutter, and Matthew Hotopf
BMJ 2008 336: 322-325. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]