Patient consent and conscientious objection

摘要

The concept of 'relational autonomy' is an interesting one; court cases on consent advance the view strongly of'absolute patient autonomy' but, notably, Mr Justice Mostyn in the Nottingham case-at paragraph 12 in his judgment talks about the consequences of decision making on third parties; he can be seen to be adopting a'relational autonomy', perspective. He states that the court would not sanction that a detained person with capacity, who made a formal written request, be given razor blades with which to harm himself or a rope to hang himself.