Organ and tissue donation
CHAPTER 12 Organ and tissue donation 12.1 Human tissue [12.1.1] What is human tissue? Human tissue is defined in legislation in each state and territory. The legislation was a response…
Incompetent patients and end-of-life decisions
CHAPTER 11 Incompetent patients and end-of-life decisions 11.1 Substitute decision-making and the dying process [11.1.1] Who can act as a substitute decision-maker for an incompetent patient who needs life-sustaining treatments?…
Competent patients and end-of-life decisions
CHAPTER 10 Competent patients and end-of-life decisions 10.1 Death [10.1.1] What is the definition of death? The common law approach to defining death has been to rely on the definition…
Children and young people
CHAPTER 9 Children and young people 9.1 Definitions [9.1.1] What do the terms ‘child’, ‘minor’ and ‘young person’ mean? A child or minor is a person who is younger than…
Negligence and standards of care
CHAPTER 4 Negligence and standards of care 4.1 Negligence [4.1.1] What is negligence? A claim in negligence is a civil claim that is successfully brought when one person, the tortfeasor…
Incompetent patients and substitute decision-making
CHAPTER 8 Incompetent patients and substitute decision-making 8.1 Substitute decision-making [8.1.1] What if an incompetent patient needs treatment? Once it has been determined that a patient is incompetent, the health…
Recognising legal questions in clinical practice
CHAPTER 2 Recognising legal questions in clinical practice 2.1 Ethics and law in clinical practice [2.1.1] Why is it important to identify legal issues that arise in clinical practice? Doctors…
Competence
CHAPTER 7 Competence 7.1 Assessing the competence of patients to give consent [7.1.1] What is meant by ‘competence to consent to medical treatment’? As chapter 6 makes clear, consent is…
Aspects of the therapeutic relationship
CHAPTER 5 Aspects of the therapeutic relationship 5.1 Non-tortious legal duties [5.1.1.] While most attention in health law is given to the law of tort, other legal duties arise in…
