Who Decides?: Consent, Capacity and Medical Treatment

It is a fundamental ethical and legal requirement that consent should be obtained before providing medical treatment. Despite this, basic legal questions arise regarding consent for those who lack decision-making capacityto consent to treatment. Many of these questions will be addressed when theAssisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 (the 2015 Act) comes fullyinto force. This chapter identifies the impact of the 2015 Act on consent totreatment; the questions which will remain and the matters which still need to be addressed to provide clarity. First, however, we look at the current Irish law (the position prior to the 2015 Act coming into force). &nbsp