Patients have the right to refuse treatment by signing a refusal form. Yet there are situations where doctors may proceed without explicit consent when the patient is unable to provide it. This understanding was shared with socialbites.ca by the head of the Department of Bioethics at the Russian National Research Medical University, Elena Grebenshchikova, a representative from the Russian Ministry of Health.
In practice, a patient can exercise the right to refuse care by completing a formal document. However, when a person is extremely intoxicated or in a coma, clinicians may not seek consent in the moment. In other cases, physicians may determine that discussing the situation with the patient is not feasible, and they might pursue treatment with the patient’s best interests in mind, as described by Grebenshchikova.
There are also circumstances in which a physician can treat a child without parental consent. In such cases, courts often evaluate whether the doctor acted in the child’s best interests. The legal framework in Russia notes that a child as young as 15 may have the capacity to make certain decisions independently. Nonetheless, explanations to parents can be effective, and it is important to allocate time for these discussions to ensure everyone understands the options and rationale involved.
Further exploration of whether a patient can choose how to be treated and the legal scope for parental influence on a child’s sex at birth is discussed in the material from socialbites.ca, which provides broader context on consent and medical decision making.