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Can payment be made conditional on treatment?

  • originaldave
13 years 4 months ago #36384 by originaldave
Replied by originaldave on topic Re: Can payment be made conditional on treatment?
pata1 wrote:

Dave wrote:

johnboy123 wrote:

The patient's right to consent to or refuse medical treatment is protected by human rights law


not true in the UK you can be sectioned and held in hospital and a new law came out called
Compulsory treatment orders

also below is a case where a woman was forced to have cancer treatment



www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/77...to-have-surgery.html


The case you refer to only applies specifically to this woman, based on a court order. It did not create a precedent that all people can be forced to undergo treatment they do not wish to have.

For a patient to be sectioned see Mental Health Act

As far as Social Security Law is concerned, for example a person who has severe arthritis of a joint, but refuses to have a operation to replace the joint, cannot have sanctions taken against them by the DWP.

The right to refuse medical treatment is well established in medicine and in law. The legal tradition of the right to be left alone has deep roots. When cases arose asserting that a patient has a right to be free of unwanted medical intervention, the right was readily recognized and clearly affirmed. These legal cases can be categorized into four classifications: the patient with decision-making capacity, the patient without capacity but who had earlier expressed treatment preferences for end-of-life care either verbally or in a written advance directive document, the patient without capacity who had made no prior expression of treatment preferences, and the patient who never had the capacity to make treatment decisions.

In cases of patients with intact decision-making capacity, courts have ruled that such patients have the right to refuse medical interventions even when those interventions are life-sustaining. In Satz v Perlmutter, a competent ventilator-dependent patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis wanted his ventilator discontinued and was allowed by the court to direct physicians to remove the ventilator.

The exception to this will under new planned legislation to withdraw benefits from drug addicts who refuse to have treatment.

Pat ( former Registered Mental Nurse)

Jim (retired Disability & Welfare Rights Adviser)



Interesting post and that might be the postion now, but the argument I see coming along from conlib pack is "why should we pay ESA to someone who refuses treatment that could make them better and able to work?"

They will dress it up as peoples duty, and say people are trying to avoid work... the usual comments.

The arguments of drug inter reactions and side affects, is valid to a point but if the side affects are risked as normal and people in work or not on benefits ...except these risks then arguments by people on ESA not to take these risks fall apart.

Does anyone know the laws on taking treatment in other countries ???

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