SCOC upholds right to demand life support against medical advice
Posted October 18, 2013 8:59 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA (NEWS1130) – The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed an appeal that would have permitted doctors to end life support for a severely brain-damaged man without the consent of his family or substitute decision maker.
In a split 5-2 decision, the majority of justices say that under Ontario’s Health Care Consent Act, treatment cannot be confined to something that doctors consider to be of medical benefit to the patient.
The case involves 61-year-old Hassan Rasouli, who has been kept alive on a ventilator and feeding tube since brain surgery in 2010 went wrong.
Doctors at Toronto’s Sunnybrook hospital have determined there is no therapeutic hope of recovery and that keeping Rasouli on life support will result in a series of progressively worse medical complications as his body deteriorates.
However Rasouli’s wife won’t consent to end life support, citing the couple’s Shia Muslim religion and a belief that her brain-damaged husband’s movements indicate some level of minimal consciousness.
Two lower courts sided with her.
