2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Studies on Informed Consent in French Medical Law
| Project/Area Number |
17530095
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
New fields of law
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| Research Institution | Fukuoka Institute of Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
OKAWARA Yoshio Fukuoka Institute of Technology, Social and Environmental Studies, Professor, 社会環境学部, 教授 (70341469)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2005 – 2006
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| Keywords | Informed Consent / medical treatment refusal / person / doctor's medical treatment duty / principle of Integrity or Inviolability of body or person / refusal of a transfusion treatment / personal autonomy / public order |
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| Research Abstract |
This study reconsiders the character and the limit of a right of medical treatment refusal of a patient in French medical law. Can a patient refuse treatment (e.g. on the grounds of his religious belief), although that refusal will ultimately result in the person's death, or can a third person impose a duty of medical treatment against a patient's will? And this work asks theoretically the state of a doctor's medical treatment duty to the patient who refuses effective cancer medical treatment.
According to the French judicial precedent, the right of medical treatment refusal, which makes principle of Integrity or Inviolability of body or person the basis, has the following limits : first, in a relation with a doctor, when there is a risk of the patient's death, this right is not accepted, and then in a relation with a third person with an interest, a patient may be unable to refuse an operation. This judicial precedent distinguishes an intervention by the gravity of the degree, and refusal of a risk-free usual medical treatment and operation is considered as "faute". This right has only relative character and such a limit. Also with transfusion medical treatment, it is supposed that it corresponds to the usual medical treatment; therefore, the refusal of a transfusion treatment is not accepted as "abus de droit". A patient will hesitate at use of a right and will be daunted by such situation. This patient's medical right must not receive such restriction, and probably, by giving a higher legal basis to it, this right must be constituted as a higher right.
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