If the child is suffering from renal failure and the doctor decided that the child needs dialysis in an urgent way to save the child's life and his father refused so what should the doctor do?
Contradictions between parents' will and doctor's will:
We are dealing with a patient who can not express his or her own will (either because he is too young, because he is unconscious, or because he has a mental disability that does not enable him to express his will). The doctor wants to subject him to therapeutic work that he deems necessary, but the parents reject this work.
The question is: Should the doctor's will or the will of the parents be respected?
Undoubtedly, parental refusal is not always dictated by the patient's interest. They may refuse treatment because of unjustifiable fear of the patient, financial reasons (such as inability to afford the proposed treatment) or even, in rare cases, just to get rid of a very disabled child .
In such circumstances, one may wonder whether it is best to leave the doctor to be considered the best natural protectors of the patient so that he or she is entitled to take the actions imposed by the circumstances and condition of the patient.
The doctor should be a guardian of the patient's interests, and should be protected, if necessary, against the negligence or bad faith of his or her relatives.
Therefore, subordinating the parents' will to the physician's will assumes two conditions:
That the refusal issued by them is unjustified, and that there is an urgent need for the required intervention.
Contradictions between parents' will and doctor's will:
We are dealing with a patient who can not express his or her own will (either because he is too young, because he is unconscious, or because he has a mental disability that does not enable him to express his will). The doctor wants to subject him to therapeutic work that he deems necessary, but the parents reject this work.
The question is: Should the doctor's will or the will of the parents be respected?
Undoubtedly, parental refusal is not always dictated by the patient's interest. They may refuse treatment because of unjustifiable fear of the patient, financial reasons (such as inability to afford the proposed treatment) or even, in rare cases, just to get rid of a very disabled child .
In such circumstances, one may wonder whether it is best to leave the doctor to be considered the best natural protectors of the patient so that he or she is entitled to take the actions imposed by the circumstances and condition of the patient.
The doctor should be a guardian of the patient's interests, and should be protected, if necessary, against the negligence or bad faith of his or her relatives.
Therefore, subordinating the parents' will to the physician's will assumes two conditions:
That the refusal issued by them is unjustified, and that there is an urgent need for the required intervention.