Rejection of Life-Sustaining Emergency Treatment in a Hospital Emergency Room

                                                                       This thread is about the patient telling the Emergency Room doctor: "I refuse to have any emergency life-saving treatment" and then what?Let's start out with a Case reviewed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and with the conclusion of that Court.Shine v. Vega, 429 Mass. 456, 709 N.E.2d 58 (Mass. 1999)Civil action commenced in the Superior Court Department on March 19, 1993. The case was tried before Margaret R. Hinkle, J. The Supreme Judicial Court on its own initiative transferred the case from the Appeals Court. In this wrongful death case, we must resolve the conflict between the right of a competent adult to refuse medical treatment and the interest of a physician in preserving life without fear of liability. In 1990, an invasive procedure, intubation, was forcibly performed on Catherine Shine (Catherine), a life-long asthmatic in the midst of a severe asthma attack. Dr. Jose Vega, an emergency physician at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), initiated the intubation without Catherine's consent and over her repeated and vigorous objections. In 1993, Dr. Ian Shine, Catherine's father and the administrator of her estate, brought a multi-count complaint against Dr. Vega...
Source: Bioethics Discussion Blog - Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: blogs