Doctors who ignore living wills ‘breaching’ patients’ rights
Speaking at the Irish Hospital Consultants Association annual conference in Cavan, senior counsel Oonah McCrann said that despite the need to protect a life, if a doctor deliberately went against a patient’s request not to receive care they could be in breach of the individual’s rights.
The comment was made just two days after a British coroner’s court found that hospital staff acted within the law when they allowed a young woman who attempted suicide to die as she had insisted they should not revive her.
