Medical Treatment: Decisions and the Law

Medical Treatment Decisions and the Law covers an increasingly important area of law, seeking to place medical decision-making in its context and to provide practical guidance to the solution of many problems likely to be encountered in practice.

It concentrates on the decisions involved in obtaining authority for the provision, the withholding and withdrawal of physical medical treatment and care and the legal requirements and consequences of the decision-making process.

The third edition is fully updated to include:

Cases on deprivation and restraint of liberty since the second edition;
The March 2014 Supreme Court case of Cheshire West and P&Q, Article 5 ECHR;
The Supreme Court case in Aintree v James;
PC v City of York in which MacFarlane LJ emphasised the “decision specific” approach of the Mental Capacity Act;
Important cases on the assessment and treatment of anorexic patients;
The position where treatment has been refused by the patient (including force feeding and gynaecological treatment).

“...it can rightly claim to be the authoritative practitioner text for medical treatment cases...admirably current...should therefore find its way speedily into the hands of Trust lawyers and those who advise Trusts and CCGs, so as to assist the further development of good practice. It should also find its way into the hands of anyone else who is concerned to understand how the law and medicine interact in practice.” —www.mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk

“...a book for practitioners written by practitioners. It is as close to granting the reader a free, direct advice-line to counsel, as the joint heads of Serjeants' Inn are ever likely to permit...a wonderfully user-friendly, quick reference guide...” —New Law Journal