Advance decisions and the law: a clinician’s guide

The law concerning advance decisions, otherwise known as €œLiving Wills€, has been formalisedby the Mental Capacity Act. These documents can be used by patients to refuse treatment andcan be legally binding on clinicians. This article looks at the background to advance decisionsand provides an example contained in a survey questionnaire to demonstrate and discuss thecriteria used to determine if an advance decision is legally binding or not.