Refusing or consenting to specific medical treatment

As a donor you can set out instructions for your attorney regarding how you would like them to act on your behalf. This can include separate instructions for almost any eventuality. It is important to remember that if you haven’t set out instructions, once you hand over power, your attorney would be acting on how they believe you would have wanted them to act. You may feel that they know you well enough to make the right decisions, but this may not be the case – and you could be putting them in a stressful and difficult position if you do not provide them with detailed guidance.

The attorney will check your Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) for instructions about refusing or consenting to treatment. Having these instructions gives your attorney the peace of mind of knowing how you would like them to act. If you have appointed more than one attorney it is helpful if you give instructions that they should fully agree with each other before deciding on your behalf.

If you are the attorney you’ll need to show the LPA to professionals involved in the care of the donor, so that they know you have LPA concerning the donor’s health and welfare. These staff will then need to keep you informed about what is happening in relation to the care of the donor and must ask you to sign medical consent forms. Although you, as the attorney, will now be making decisions that are in the donor’s best interests and that are influenced by their instructions in the LPA, you will not be allowed to do this if, for example, the donor has made a ‘living will’ or has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983