| Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment: criminal responsibility for established medical practice? | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 20552946 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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The law recognises the right of a competent adult to refuse medical treatment even if this will lead to death. Guardianship and other legislation also facilitates the making of decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment in certain circumstances. Despite this apparent endorsement that such decisions can be lawful, doubts have been raised in Queensland about whether decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment would contravene the criminal law, and particularly the duty imposed by the Criminal Code (Qld) to provide the "necessaries of life". This article considers this tension in the law and examines various arguments that might allow for such decisions to be made lawfully. It ultimately concludes, however, that criminal responsibility may still arise and so reform is needed. |
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Authors:
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Ben White; Lindy Willmott; John Allen |
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Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article; Legal Cases |
Journal Detail:
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Title: Journal of law and medicine Volume: 17 ISSN: 1320-159X ISO Abbreviation: J Law Med Publication Date: 2010 May |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2010-06-17 Completed Date: 2010-07-22 Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 9431853 Medline TA: J Law Med Country: Australia |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 849-65 Citation Subset: IM |
Affiliation:
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Health Law Research Program, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. bp.white@qut.edu.au |
Export Citation:
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| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
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Australia Criminal Law* Humans Mental Competency / legislation & jurisprudence Physicians / legislation & jurisprudence Withholding Treatment / legislation & jurisprudence* |
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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