Case 14: Court rules that a man with a cognitive disability must be provided with nutrition and hydration

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ACT Health applied to the ACT Supreme Court for a declaration that it would be lawful for the hospital treating an elderly man with a long history of schizophrenia not to provide him with nutrition and hydration. The man believed that fasting would bring him closer to God and had previously refused or resisted treatment, including feeding tubes, whilst he was under guardianship and psychiatric treatment orders. Doctors estimated the man would only live for another 12 months even with treatment. The Court refused the application on the basis that the man could not consent to the withdrawal or refusal of available medical treatment due to his cognitive disability and there was the prospect of medical benefit from the intervention. ACT Health had argued that the man’s refusal of treatment would make forcible treatment degrading, however the court decided that the doctors had a duty of care to him and declining to treat him might be unlawful.

Source: Australian Capital Territory v JT [2009] ACTSC 105