Senior Lecturer in Health Law at Swansea University
Both the Mental Health Act 1983 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 have provisions for the authorisation of a deprivation of liberty that are compliant with Article 5 of the European Convention on Human...
Children are often subject to restrictions imposed by their parents or a person acting in loco parentis with such restrictions amounting to a deprivation of liberty.
To protect the dignity of patients by ensuring that restrictions imposed to protect that person and not overly intrusive, best interests assessors are commissioned to review the restrictions and...
‘Keep to all relevant laws about mental capacity that apply in the country in which you are practising, and make sure that the rights and best interests of those who lack capacity are still at the...
The Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 introduced hospital and limitation directions into the Mental Health Act 1983. Section 45A of the Mental Health Act 1983 allows the Crown Court to issue a hospital...
When a person with a mental disorder is prosecuted it is open to them to argue that they are not guilty by reason of insanity. This legal defence is available at common law to any criminal charge. For...
The law recognises that adults have a right to determine what will be done to their bodies (Re MB (Caesarean Section) [1997]). Touching a person without consent will amount to a civil trespass to the...
Nurses' exposure to multiple jeopardy is founded on the multifaceted nature of the duty they owe to their patients and the nature of their accountability. Accountability underpins the professionalism,...
‘Grant to any patient who is for the time being liable to be detained in a hospital under this Part of this Act leave to be absent from the hospital subject to such conditions (if any) as that...
‘The consent of a patient shall not be required for any medical treatment given to him for the mental disorder from which he is suffering, [not being a form of treatment to which safeguards apply],...
There is no statutory definition of death (Grubb, et al, 2010). Generally the Triad of Bichat, which defines death as the failure of the body as an integrated system associated with the irreversible...
‘Every human being of adult years and sound mind has the right to determine what shall happen to their own body.’ .
‘… the process by which you (the delegator) allocate clinical or non-clinical care and support to a competent person (the delegatee). The delegator will remain responsible for the overall management...
The Children Act 1989, section 20 concerns the duty of a local authority to provide accommodation for children in need. It contains no compulsory provisions and no compulsory curtailment of parental...
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 does not define a best interest. Instead, it sets out a checklist of factors that have to be taken into account when determining the best interests of a person who lacks...
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