Texas Court of Appeals Green Lights Lawsuit on Unwanted Medical Treatment

Every year, millions of Americans receive unwanted medical treatment (UMT). Most have no legal remedy for two reasons.  First, many are not harmed seriously enough (usually $250,000 or more) to warrant the high transaction costs of medical malpractice litigation. Second, while these patients may have preferred to not have the therapy in question, a reasonable patient would probably have consented to the therapy had they been clearly asked. In the typical case, the patient consents to the treatment but lacks an adequate understanding of what the treatment entails. But in some cases, the patient does not consent at all. For example, I have described successful cases where patients with a DNR order received CPR. In an opinion published at the end of October the Texas 14th Court of Appeals allowed a case to proceed to trial where a a physician instructed staff to administer a "highly toxic drug” multiple times without obtaining the patient's consent. The patient died approximately one week later.Defendant Mohsen Shapouri Arani
Source: blog.bioethics.net - Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Tags: Health Care syndicated Source Type: blogs