Treating competent patients by force: the limits and lessons of Israel’s Patient’s Rights Act
- Correspondence to: Dr M L Gross Department of Political Science, University of Haifa, Israel; mgrosspoli.haifa.ac.il
- Received 23 June 2002
- Accepted 28 February 2003
- Revised 4 October 2002
Abstract
Competent patients who refuse life saving medical treatment present a dilemma for healthcare professionals. On one hand, respect for autonomy and liberty demand that physicians respect a patient’s decision to refuse treatment. However, it is often apparent that such patients are not fully competent. They may not adequately comprehend the benefits of medical care, be overly anxious about pain, or discount the value of their future state of health. Although most bioethicists are convinced that partial autonomy or marginal competence of this kind demands the same respect as full autonomy, Israeli legislators created a mechanism to allow ethics committees to override patients’ informed refusal and treat them against their will. To do so, three conditions must be satisfied: physicians must make every effort to ensure the patient understands the risks of non-treatment, the treatment physicians propose must offer a realistic chance of significant improvement, and there are reasonable expectations that the patient will consent retroactively. Although not all of these conditions are equally cogent, they offer a way forward to assure care for certain classes of competent patients without abandoning the principle of autonomy altogether. These concerns reach past Israel and should engage healthcare professionals wary that respect for autonomy may sometimes cause avoidable harm.
Footnotes
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In two landmark American cases involving Jehovah’s Witnesses, higher courts overruled lower courts that had permitted physicians to treat a patient against her wishes (Application of the President and Directors of Georgetown College, 331 F.2d 1000 (D.C. Cir), certiorari denied, 377 US 978, 1964; In re Brooks, 205 NE 2d 435 (Ill SC 1965)).
