South Australian Current Acts

CONSENT TO MEDICAL TREATMENT AND PALLIATIVE CARE ACT 1995 - SECT 14B

14B—Consent of person responsible for patient effective in certain circumstances

        (1)         Where it is proposed to administer medical treatment to a patient with impaired decision-making capacity in respect of a decision that is required in relation to the medical treatment, a consent given by a person responsible for the patient to the administration of the proposed medical treatment—

            (a)         will be taken to be a consent given by the patient; and

            (b)         will be taken to have the same effect for all purposes as if the patient gave the consent.

        (2)         The regulations may make further provision in relation to the giving of consent by a person responsible for a patient for the purposes of this Act (including by limiting the kinds of medical treatment to which a specified class of person responsible can consent).

        (3)         The effectiveness of a consent given by a person responsible for a patient is not affected merely because insufficient inquiries were made to locate a person with higher responsibility for the patient before the consent was given (as contemplated by the hierarchy in the definition of "person responsible in section 14).

        (4)         Consent to the administration of particular medical treatment will, for all purposes, be taken to have been given by the patient if—

            (a)         the medical treatment was administered with the purported consent of a person who represented to the medical practitioner that he or she was a person responsible for the patient; and

            (b)         the medical practitioner did not know and could not reasonably be expected to have known that the person was not, in fact, a person responsible for the patient.