Consent and Ethics: Adults

Compassion in Dying - A UK charity that helps patients and their doctors draw up Advance Care Plans and other matters.

MyDeath,MyDecision - An online tool for developing an advance decision and advance statement.

ReSPECT - Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment - ReSPECT is a process that creates personalised recommendations for a person’s clinical care in a future emergency in which they are unable to make or express choices. It provides health and care professionals responding to that emergency with a summary of recommendations to help them to make immediate decisions about that person’s care and treatment. ReSPECT can be complementary to a wider process of advance/anticipatory care planning.

Further resources

• Fritz Zoë, Slowther Anne-Marie, Perkins Gavin D. Resuscitation policy should focus on the patient, not the decision. BMJ2017;356:j813
• McCombe K, Bogod D. Paternalism and Consent: Has the law finally caught up with the profession? Anaesth 2015;70:1016–1019
• Mental Capacity Law and Policy – Deprivation of liberty in Intensive Care
• British Medical Association (BMA) advice and resources covering Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS)
• Social Care Institute for Excellence – an article summarising the recent developments in DoLS – R (Ferreira) v HM Senior Coroner
• RCoA statement on the use of restraint
• Restraining adult patients in hospital – University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
• Mental incapacity and restraint for treatment: present law and proposals for reform. Bridgman AM. Journal of Medical Ethics 2000;26:387-392.
• The anaesthetist, restrictive interventions and restraint teams by Dr L Brennan
• The Law Society – Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards

Below are some links which focus on the Mental Capacity Act and its role in clinical practice:

• Health Research Authority – Adults unable to consent for themselves
• Social Care Institute for Excellence – The Mental Capacity Act Guide