Appeal Court Says Hospital Wrong to Administer Anti-Psychotic Drugs Without Consent (CANADA)

August 8, 2013

A glimmer of hope appeared last week in the battle to restore the fundamental right of Canadian citizens to choose to give or withhold consent to medication.

A panel of judges in Ontario’s highest court has just overturned previous rulings that permitted a doctor to administer antipsychotic drugs to a patient without her knowledge and against her will.
According to an article in the National Post, this ruling “reinforces a patient’s right to refuse medication,” which the Supreme Court of Canada upheld in 2003. Given the flood of similar cases received by Seniors at Risk, this right to withhold consent has been routinely trampled by our publicly funded doctors, hospitals and nursing homes, often with the aggressive support of lawyers and judges, which this case chillingly demonstrates.

When Amy Anten was hospitalized in November 2009 for treatment of lupus, staff at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto began secretly “slipping an antipsychotic drug (risperidone) into her orange juice” without her knowledge. Later, after she was injected with risperidone, she noticed side effects, asked questions and strenuously objected that the harmful side effects outweighed any potential benefit.
Consent and Capacity Board criticized by three-judge panel
Ontario has a Consent and Capacity Board (CCB) whose job is to arbitrate disputes about whether a patient’s right to informed consent (or that of the person’s substitute decision maker) are being respected. In January 2010, Amy Anten went to the CCB asking them to stop Dr. Shree Bhalerao, the St. Michael’s Hospital doctor who apparently authorized the secret administration of the drug, from exerting his will against her wishes.

Abridged
SOURCE:       Seniors At Risk

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