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.

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

"This leading textbook is aimed at lawyers, judges, health care practitioners and local authority professionals who have to deal with the most ethically challenging cases which face the courts: medical treatment decisions. It offers a practical, readily accessible text for those dealing with providing medical treatment to those without capacity in real life. The book provides not only a clear description of the legal principles applied by Court of Protection judges and the arguments deployed by the authors in the many Court of Protection cases in which they appear, but also a large number of precedents and appendices which will ease the preparation for court hearings (which are often heard as an emergency). Key developments include: - New Fertility Issues chapter -including contraception, sterilisation, and abortion - Chapter 13 changed from PVS/MCS to "Withdrawal of treatment" - the case law has widened on this - Discussion of "Escalation of Care" - the clinical question of whether treatment should be made available - covering matters including NICE guidelines and care pathways. Issues around availability of treatment on clinical grounds are increasing in case law - Expansion of Chapter 17 to cover the funding of treatment. - New chapter on mental health/compulsory treatment other than MHA 1983: there are a range of areas where people can be compelled to have treatment on public health grounds - such as the Coronavirus Act, but also quarantine laws, applications in the magistrates to compel treatment for infectious diseases such as TB, and vaccinations."--

For our most life-changing decisions, this is a practical guide to the law and how it really works, written to be accessible not only for lawyers, but also for clinicians, patients and anyone concerned about them.

This work covers an increasingly important area of law, which is now of interest to family and private client lawyers as well as specialist medical lawyers. It seeks 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, withholding and withdrawal of physical medical treatment and care and the legal requirements and consequences of the decision-making process. It contains a unique collection of materials not easily obtained elsewhere, such as the BMA Guidelines on Treatment Decisions, and examines both the general principles and specific problems such as caesarean sections, anorexia and persistent vegetative states.

What should happen when doctors and parents disagree about what would be best for a child? When should courts become involved? Should life support be stopped against parents' wishes? The case of Charlie Gard, reached global attention in 2017. It led to widespread debate about the ethics of disagreements between doctors and parents, about the place of the law in such disputes, and about the variation in approach between different parts of the world. In this book, medical ethicists Dominic Wilkinson and Julian Savulescu critically examine the ethical questions at the heart of disputes about medical treatment for children. They use the Gard case as a springboard to a wider discussion about the rights of parents, the harms of treatment, and the vital issue of limited resources. They discuss other prominent UK and international cases of disagreement and conflict. From opposite sides of the debate Wilkinson and Savulescu provocatively outline the strongest arguments in favour of and against treatment. They analyse some of the distinctive and challenging features of treatment disputes in the 21st century and argue that disagreement about controversial ethical questions is both inevitable and desirable. They outline a series of lessons from the Gard case and propose a radical new 'dissensus' framework for future cases of disagreement. - This new book critically examines the core ethical questions at the heart of disputes about medical treatment for children. - The contents review prominent cases of disagreement from the UK and internationally and analyse some of the distinctive and challenging features around treatment disputes in the 21st century. - The book proposes a radical new framework for future cases of disagreement around the care of gravely ill people.