Decision-Making and Problems of Incompetence (Kings College Studies)

Decision-Making and Problems of Incompetence Edited by Andrew Grubb Reader in Medical Law, Executive Director School of Law and Centre of Medical Law and Ethics. Kings College London, UK The eighth volume in the series of Kings College Studies reflects the central importance in medical law and ethics of decision-making and the incapacitated patient. Drawing on recent court cases in America, Canada and the UK the book discusses areas of increasing social concern, such as the withdrawal of tube feeding from the persistently vegetative patient; the sterilisation of the mentally disabled, and who (if anyone) may decide to consent to medical treatment when a patient is incompetent. The profound and fundamental question of how society deals with and protects its vulnerable members is relevant to all who study medical ethics and the law, and the book will be of particular interest to medical and health care practitioners across all specialities, philosophers, medical sociologists and lawyers.