Medical Law Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6500 words

Medical Law - Coursework ExampleIn this regard, an individuals right to self-determination is based on the individuals might to praxis that right. In other words, autonomy and the right to self-determination are the ethical factors underlying what UK law accepts as capacity or competency.5 The law assumes outright that individuals bugger off the capacity to take to to medical discussion. Under Section 1(2) of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, a person must be assumed to have capacity unless it is established that he lacks capacity.6 In other words, the capacity to sw every last(predicate)ow is a rebuttable presumption, although healthcare professionals are required to start out with the presumption that in all patients have the capacity to consent to medical treatment. The presumption of capacity to consent is not automatically denied minors. ... s it would be if he were of full age and where a minor has by virtue of this section given an effective consent to any treatment it shal l not be necessary to obtain any consent for it from his parent or guardian.7 It would therefore appear that the age of majority has been lowered to 16 in terms of determining the legal capacity to consent to or refuse medical treatment. However, Section 8(3) of the 1969 Act goes on to provide that Section 8 shall not be construed as making ineffective any consent which would have been effective in the event this section had not been enacted.8 It therefore follows that common law considerations relative to assessing capacity on the nates of the patients ability to process and understand information relative to medical treatment in a rational manner may be applied to all minors. Lord Scarman noted in Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authorit that fixing the age of minority at 16 was undesirable as it Brings with it an inflexibility and a rigidity which in some branches of the law can obstruct justice, impede the laws development and stamp on the law the target area o f obsolescence where what is needed is the capacity for development.9 In other words, Lord Scarman felt that it was unrealistic to fix the age of development when many factors influenced a childs take of maturity and thus the issue of whether or not a minor was in a position to understand the medical treatment proposed and thus grass a rational decision about accepting or refusing to accept it. It therefore follows that capacity to consent to or refuse to submit to medical treatment is a subjective issue. Legal capacity to consent to medical treatment or medicine is not determined or fixed on the basis of the individuals status. Therefore