Advance decisions and the Mental Capacity Act

Halliday, Samantha

Abstract

This article critically considers the impact of the Mental Capacity Act upon patient autonomy and the ability to make an advance decision that will bind health care professionals. It considers the significant hurdles erected in the Act, concluding that in many cases advance decisions will simply be an indication of what the patient would want, rather than a binding anticipatory refusal of consent to treatment and that the key to enabling patients to exercise precedent autonomy will be full and frank discussion of the scope and intentions underlying advance decisions between patients and their healthcare professionals.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Oct 31, 2019
• Publication Date: 2009
• Deposit Date: Oct 31, 2019
• Journal: British Journal of Nursing
• Print ISSN: 0966-0461
• Publisher: MA Healthcare
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 11
• Pages: 697 - 699
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1285631