PURPOSE OF REVIEW To highlight areas for potential refinement in assessments of capacity to give informed consent. RECENT FINDINGS The clinical assessment of the patient's capacity to give informed consent may be informed and guided by sophisticated criteria or assessment instruments. The approach of most assessment instruments and the literature on (in)capacity departs from the abilities tha...

Liddell,F.D..K. (1973). Brit. J. industr. Med., 30, 1-14. Morbidity of British coal miners in 196162. The British coal mining population in 1961 is described, in terms of the 29084men covered in a 5% sample census, by age, type of employment, coalfield, size of community, degree of mechanization, and other factors. Over a quarter of the men were in jobs not considered specific to coalmining, al...

1. General Medical Council (2001); Good Medical Practice (3rd edn). http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/library/duties of a doctor.asp (last accessed 7 September 2006). 2. General Medical Council (2004); Confidentiality: Protecting and Providing Information. http://www.gmcuk.org/guidance/library/confidentiality.asp (last accessed 19 September 2006). 3. General Medical Council (2001); Good Medical Pr...

1. General Medical Council (2001); Good Medical Practice (3rd edn). http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/library/duties of a doctor.asp (last accessed 7 September 2006). 2. General Medical Council (2004); Confidentiality: Protecting and Providing Information. http://www.gmcuk.org/guidance/library/confidentiality.asp (last accessed 19 September 2006). 3. General Medical Council (2001); Good Medical Pr...

Uear Sir, In your Summer issue you invited correspondence "on this highly controversial subject." As basic issues may vary in different geographical locations in so vast a country as the United States, I submit the following as from the area known here as our "far-West." Your questions are answered in accordance with my experience as Superintendent and Medical Director of a State Institution fo...

What are the basic principles of mental capacity law in England and Wales and how do they apply in practice? What happens when an adult has a mental or physical incapacity and so is unable to manage their own affairs, yet owns property in several different jurisdictions? Or becomes incapacitated in a jurisdiction other than where they usually live? The importance of these areas is well rehearse...

Aims and method Capacity legislation in the UK allows substitute decision-making for adults lacking capacity. Research has explored the experiences of such adults and their carers in relation to the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000, and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in England and Wales. A systematic review of the relevant research was performed using a framework method. Results The le...

Primary presenile dementia slows the major positive component of the visual evoked potential to flash stimulation but does not affect the visual evoked potential to patterned stimulation. The progressive effect of Alzheimer's disease was followed in a 58 year old woman over three and a half years from the development of the earliest symptoms to complete mental incapacity. The pattern reversal v...

BACKGROUND Science can artificially maintain many essential life functions. Does such care prolong life or dying? METHODS A case is described of a patient with developmental disability with unknown health care choices who was hospitalized for drug-resistant urosepsis. He developed aspiration pneumonia, deep vein thrombosis, and respiratory arrest. He required gastrostomy, tracheostomy, artifi...