Queensland docs can ignore advance medical directives
The right of Queenslanders to refuse life-sustaining medicaltreatment is being undermined by a legal excuse for doctors toignore patients’ instructions, a specialist says. Five Australian states have enshrined in law the concept of a”living will”, in which patients can leave instructions fortreatment should they become incapacitated. Legal expert Lindy Willmott, from the Queensland University ofTechnology, said Queensland was the only state to allow doctors toignore a patient’s instructions if they believed the instructionswere inconsistent with good medical practice. In Queensland, these instructions, called advance healthdirectives, become effective if a terminally-ill person becomesvegetative, is expected to die in a year, or is so ill or injuredthey cannot recover. “But if a person is in one of these states and doctors deem that’good medical practice’ entitles them to intervene withlife-sustaining treatment, they can do so without incurring whatwould otherwise be a charge of assault,” Prof Willmott said.
Read more at http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/GPs-undermine-right-to-refuse-treatment/2007/07/10/1183833494103.html