New Fact Sheet on Refusing Health Care: What are my Rights?

Early 2015 has been a year of landmark cases, about physician-assisted dying in the Supreme Court of Canada, in addition to the Margot Bentley decision at the BC Court of Appeal.

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This fact sheet addresses the law in BC

Most of the information available online is academic and focuses on what this means for legislatures (law-makers), but these decisions have implications for Canadians, and people in British Columbia. Different changes to the law could be made across Canada and in each province.

A new fact sheet produced by Nidus answers questions of more interest to the everyday person living in BC, such as:

  • Can I refuse health care? (Yes, there is law in BC saying that if you are 19 years or older and are “capable of informed consent”, you have the right to make your own decisions about care.)
  • Can I request help with dying when I am ready? (The short answer is no, but watch for changes.)
  • If I am incapable, can someone refuse care on my behalf?
    • What are the legal documents that apply?
  • Can a doctor refuse to give me life-supporting care? (This can be a confusing area of the law.)
    • What is the No CPR (Do Not Resuscitate) form?
  •  Is there a Registry for my documents? (Yes.)

To read more about the law in BC that governs giving, refusing and withdrawing consent for health care, see the new fact sheet by Nidus directly on their website here, and through the Clicklaw website here along with their other resources.

7 Most Popular Clicklaw Resources of 2014

At Clicklaw, we use Google Analytics to track which pages are getting the most views, as well as where people are following through and clicking on links to resources and services on other websites.

There are of course other factors to consider in calculating resource helpfulness, but here is an interesting snapshot of the seven most viewed and clicked resource topics and links of the past year:

1) HelpMap: The Clicklaw HelpMap helps provide access to free low-cost legal advice and legal information services in BC. helpmap.jpgYou can look for services related to a particular topic in a particular city in BC using the search tool located on this page.

Although people referred to fact sheets and written resources, it was clear that many were also seeking additional in-person help. Our most popular service pages referred to were for the Family Justice Centres and Court Registries in BC.

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