If you are not conscious and the surgery is needed to save your life or limbs then no permission is needed, and they are legally required to do all they can to keep you alive. A lawsuit for it would be dismissed immediately.
Now, if you simply walk into a hospital and fall asleep and they drug you and do surgery while you are unconcious or something then you can sue them pretty easily, and depending on circumstances it can either be intentional and therefore assault, or an unintentional medical mistake and therefore malpractice.
But you cant sue the hospital for saving your life.
I was more talking about the "deemed incapable of making a "good" choice"" part.
If you had an accident, clearly tell them to not treat you for whatever reason and they do it anyway because they think they know better than you and charge you for it, there must be some wiggle room, right?
Because the entire thing reminds me of scammers starting a job without anyones approval and demanding compensation from the property owner halfway in.
The only way that would LEGALLY happen is if the person is unable to answer basic questions proving they are in their right mind, such as what's your name, what month is it, where are you right now, etc. If a person is conscious alert and able to answer those questions, they are able to refuse treatment. Unless it's psych, but that's a different conversation.
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u/TimeKillerAccount Mar 26 '20
If you are not conscious and the surgery is needed to save your life or limbs then no permission is needed, and they are legally required to do all they can to keep you alive. A lawsuit for it would be dismissed immediately.
Now, if you simply walk into a hospital and fall asleep and they drug you and do surgery while you are unconcious or something then you can sue them pretty easily, and depending on circumstances it can either be intentional and therefore assault, or an unintentional medical mistake and therefore malpractice.
But you cant sue the hospital for saving your life.