Medical Treatment Decisions and the Law

This work covers an increasingly important area of law, which is now of interest to family and private client lawyers as well as specialist medical lawyers. It seeks to place medical decision-making in its context and to provide practical guidance to the solution of many problems likely to be encountered in practice. It concentrates on the decisions involved in obtaining authority for the provision, withholding and withdrawal of physical medical treatment and care and the legal requirements and consequences of the decision-making process. It contains a unique collection of materials not easily obtained elsewhere, such as the BMA Guidelines on Treatment Decisions, and examines both the general principles and specific problems such as caesarean sections, anorexia and persistent vegetative states.