3. Find out when you cannot give consent
Question & Answer
What happens if I cannot consent to medical treatment?Consent means that you agree to something.
The law says that you must give your consent to the to get medical treatment. And for your consent to be valid it must be:
- informed, and
- voluntary.
Read more in Steps 1 and 2.
A health-care provider can treat you without your consent if:
- you're not of giving your consent, or
- there's a medical emergency, for example, you're in an accident and need surgery right away to live.
If you’re not mentally capable
It's the health-care provider who suggests the treatment who decides if you're mentally capable of consenting to it.
You can be capable of giving your consent to some treatments but not others. This is because some treatments are easier to understand. For example, it's easier to agree to have your blood taken than to agree to surgery.
If your health-care provider decides that you're not mentally capable, your (SDM) makes decisions about your treatment. Read more about this in Step 4.
In an emergency
If you have a medical emergency, a health-care provider can give you emergency treatment. For example, this could be stopping you from bleeding or giving you cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
They can do this without getting your consent, unless they have a reason to believe that you do not want the treatment. For example, they might know that while you were mentally capable you said that you did not want to have certain treatments.
If you're awake and able to talk about the treatment, the health-care provider must ask you what you want.
Once your condition is stable, the health-care provider must get consent from you or your substitute decision-maker (SDM) before giving you more treatment.
