Published 5 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4070
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4070

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Coroner rules that treating 26 year old woman who wanted to die would have been unlawful

¹ BMJ

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

A 26 year old woman who swallowed antifreeze and died after doctors refused to carry out life saving treatment against her wishes had refused the treatment "in full knowledge of the consequences and died as a result," a coroner has ruled.

Some UK media outlets reported that doctors had been forced to let Kerrie Wooltorton, from Norwich, die because she arrived at hospital brandishing a living will.

However, she arrived fully conscious by ambulance and was deemed mentally competent and therefore by law entitled to refuse medical treatment. Had she lapsed into unconsciousness before she was seen by doctors the living will or advance directive would have come into play to make her intentions clear and stop doctors intervening to save her life.

In a narrative verdict, the Norfolk coroner William Armstrong said that Ms Wooltorton had capacity to consent to treatment, which, more likely than not, would have prevented . . . [Full text of this article]

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Live and let die

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An underlying mental disorder should carefully be considered before withholding lifesaving treatment for suicidal patients who are deemed to have capacity to refuse such treatment

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