Evaluating someone’s mental capacity in relation to advance decisions to refuse treatment can be a challenge for health professionals, particularly in cases of dementia. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 clarifies and formalises the functional assessment of capacity. It aims to protect individual autonomy and counter the assumption that, just because... Read full article
The legal basis and principles for the lawful withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) from people in a persistent vegetative state (now termed permanent vegetative state), was laid out in the case of Anthony Bland, who sustained catastrophic and irreversible brain damage as a result of being crushed during... Read full article
