Consent, capacity and the right to say no

Bastian, Peter D; Eng, Adeleen; Denson, Linley A; Ward, Lynn

doi:10.5694/mja14.01750

Topics

To the Editor: Snow and Fleming identify an important and often ignored problem.1 Without commenting on their specific case, we would point out that assessing a patient's medical decision-making capacity is part of every medical encounter,2 usually as an informal process and often without deliberative thought.

1 Northern Adelaide Local Health Network, Adelaide, SA.
2 University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA.

Correspondence: peter.bastian2@health.sa.gov.au

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

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