What is the duty of a doctor to treat a patient who refuses to receive blood transfusions?
Ontario, Canada
The following excerpt is from Georghiades v. MacLeod, 2005 CanLII 14149 (ON SC):
Donnelly J., in Malette v. Shulman, supra, made reference to this duty in the context of a blood transfusion and the issue of “informed refusal”. At p. 269 he said: A conscious, rational patient is entitled to refuse any medical treatment and the doctor must comply, no matter how ill advised he may believe that instruction to be. The doctor lawfully invades the patient’s body for the purpose of treatment only after he has fully communicated to the patient the risks of treatment and the patient makes the affirmative decision, premised on a reasonable appreciation and awareness of the risks, to permit that treatment for his body. Otherwise such treatment is battery with liability consequences.
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