Assessing Capacity to Refuse Medical Treatment on Religious Grounds
by Michelle Flynn
Question(s) at stake
1) Whether a court can authorize medical personnel to administer medical treatment to an adult patient who is not of unsound mind and has refused such treatment on religious grounds. 2) Whether a mother’s constitutional rights of autonomy, self-determination, and free practice of religion would prevail over the interests of the child under the Constitution.
Outcome of the ruling
The Court affirmed that the right of a properly informed adult with full capacity to refuse medical treatment, for religious or other reasons, was constitutionally protected.
The question of balancing the constitutional rights of a new-born child against the mother’s constitutional rights of autonomy, self-determination, and free practice of religion was moot as the refusal of a blood transfusion was deemed to be invalid in this case.
Country:
Official citation
Fitzpatrick and Ryan v F.K. and the Attorney General [2008] IEHC 104
Topic(s)
Keywords:
Blood transfusion Childbirth Freedom of thought, conscience and religion Patient's rights Personal autonomy Urgent medical interventions
Tag(s):
Capacity to consent Jehovah’s Witnesses Bodily integrity
Bibliographic information
Access case report
View case report in the CUREDI databaseAbout the authors
Michelle Flynn (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department Law and Anthropology, Germany)
Michelle Flynn is a Research Fellow in the Department of Law and Anthropology. Prior to joining the Max Planck Institute in 2018, she gained over twelve years of experience working within domestic and international courts. Flynn has held judicial support roles at national and supranational levels with members of the judiciary of Ireland, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Court of Justice of the European Union. She also has significant practical experience as a barrister and as a Consultant Legal Advisor with Irish Rule of Law International, working on judicial capacity building projects in developing countries. She is also a former academic staff member at the Faculty of Law in KU Leuven, Belgium.
Flynn holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Legal Science from the National University of Ireland, Galway; a Barrister-at-Law Degree from the Honorable Society of King’s Inns, Dublin, Ireland; and an LL.M. in International and European Public Law from KU Leuven, Belgium.
Her current research examines the jurisprudence of the superior courts in Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States concerning religious prescriptions and religious personal laws. Since January 2019, she has been a Visiting Researcher at Yale Law School, where she is carrying out research concerning the relationship between law and religion in the US.