Summary: The situation in which a person appears not to believe their doctor or other professionals and therefore might or might not lack capacity is a difficult one. This judgment in the posthumous case of Sudiksha Thirumalesh overturned a long-standing legal precedent stating that if someone does not accept their medical diagnosis or prognosis, they […]
Jackie Maguire (52), who had Down’s syndrome and moderate learning difficulties, died in hospital in February 2017 of a perforated ulcer and pneumonia at the age of 52. She had lived for more than 20 years in a care home in Blackpool and required one-to-one support due to her severely compromised cognitive and communication abilities.
Incapacity is relevant to social services authorities in a number of ways. Many authorities have decided on a policy whereby they require the explicit consent of an individual before a care plan is activated. This will not be possible in cases of severe impairment or severe learning disability, because the proposed clients will not be
Incapacity – history and development Read More »
This case concerned the application for judicial review by the Claimant, Canning (C) based on the refusal by the Defendant, HM Coroner for Northampton (The Coroner) to hold an inquest into the death of his son (F). F was a 14 year-old boy and an epileptic quadriplegic. He suffered with severe cerebral palsy, was blind
This was an appeal to the House of Lords by the Health Trust against a finding that the authority owed a duty under article 2 of the ECHR (the right to life) to prevent a patient detained under s.3 MHA from committing suicide if it knew or ought to have known that there was a
Savage v South Essex Partnership NHS Trust (2008) UKHL 74 Read More »
Mental health – human rights – consent – treatment The patient was a restricted patient vehemently opposed to receiving the anti-psychotic drug treatment proposed by the RMO, who believed him to be a psychopath with an underlying psychotic illness. A SOAD certificate under s58(3)(b) of the Mental Health Act was signed, and the drug administered
Mr Ross (R) initiated a judicial review against the refusal by the defendant PCT to provide a drug to treat his cancer, multiple myeloma. Following complications which had resulted in him developing intolerable peripheral neuropathy his consultant had stopped his previous drug treatment regime and recommended a drug not usually available to NHS patients within
The European Court of Human Rights rejected Mrs Pretty’s complaint that her rights under articles 2, 3, 8, 9 and 14 had been violated. (See also Pretty v DPP) Human Rights – right to die – right to life – inhuman and degrading treatment Article 2 Mrs Pretty argued that the right to die was
Pretty v United Kingdom (Application no. 2346/02, 24 July 2002) Read More »
Negligence – duty of care – immunity from suit — European Convention on Human Rights – article 2 – article 6 For a breach of article 2, it had to be established that the authority knew or ought to have known at the time of the existence of a real and immediate risk to the
Osman v United Kingdom [1999] Crim LR 82 ECtHR Read More »
Declaration – persistent vegetative state – withdrawal of medical treatment – right to life – European Convention on Human Rights – best interests An omission to provide treatment would only be incompatible with article 2 of the Convention where the circumstances were such as to impose a positive obligation on the state to take steps
NHS Trust A v M; NHS Trust B v H [2001] 1 All ER 801 Read More »