Undue Influence in Medical Decision Making: The Experience in a Singapore Hospital - See Muah Lee
Location:
Virtual Event (Zoom)
Date/time
Tue 22 November 2022
13:00-14:00
*** Rescheduled from 09 Nov 2022 ***
The Mason Institute presents
Undue Influence in Medical Decision Making: The Experience in a Singapore Hospital
Dr See Muah Lee, Senior Consultant, Department of Medicine, Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and Adjunct Associate Professor, NUS Center for Biomedical Ethics
About the seminar
Patients have the right to decline or accept medical treatments offered to them. Mental capacity, though rebuttable, must be presumed. In Singapore, the process of medical decision making for the sick and elderly is often relational with families. Family members perceive a right in participating in the choices to be made for the patient. Elderly patients dependent on mainly family members for care and support, sometimes submit to their undue influence resulting in decisions that fail to protect the patients’ own best interests.
Following Re BKR*, we are now obliged to examine how mental capacity can be affected by undue influence. Failure to appreciate that there is undue influence, because of a mental impairment, or susceptibility to undue influence caused by mental impairment resulting in the will of the patient being overborne or lack of assistance operating with mental impairment makes the case for the determination of a lack of capacity. This would then pave the way for the health care team to decide based on best interests.
* Re BKR [2015] SGCA 26
This event is free and open to all bur registration is required through Zoom link below.
image credit: Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash