Patient rights and healthcare Faced with the threat of euthanasia, does the patient have the right to the last word? What are your rights regarding medical care? This essay will explore this issue and provide case studies to exemplify these rights in action. For legally competent adult patients, with respect to medical care per se - under Anglo-American law - every competent adult has the freedom to seek or not seek medical care and to refuse to consent to any specific proposed treatment, pursuant to of the common right to bodily integrity and intangibility:1. Competent adults may also refuse life-saving treatment under the right to physical integrity and intangibility and also, if applicable, under the constitutional right to free exercise of religion (e.g., a Jehovah's Witness refusing a blood transfusion blood because it is contrary to his religious beliefs).2 . They cannot refuse life-saving treatment if there is a compelling state interest in requiring treatment for the common good (e.g., immunization to prevent the spread of communicable diseases).3. A parent may be required to undergo life-saving treatment if there is a compelling state interest in protecting the well-being of a child from being deprived of his or her caregiver.4. Suicide attempts that result in life-threatening injuries may require life-saving treatment administered without requiring the patient's consent.5. The refusal of life-saving medical treatment is not legally equivalent to suicide because in those cases decided by the court none of the patients had the specific intent to cause their own death, but simply to accept the consequences of the fatal disease, "to let nature do the work its course" rather than undergoing the burden of treatment. As for legally incompetent patients, these are patients who lack the capacity to make legal choices, so the right to refuse consent is not involved. Therefore, court-ordered life-saving treatment is not a subordination to the patient's choice. The court will usually order life-saving or routine treatment, but extraordinary treatment is not required. Regarding minor children, Professor John A. Robertson, of Wisconsin University Law School, stated: "According to traditional principles of criminal law, the failure to provide ordinary care and assistance by parents, doctors and nurses creates criminal liability. Crimes committed may include murder, manslaughter, conspiracy and child abuse or neglect. Generally a person is criminally liable for manslaughter if: 1) He has a legal duty to protect another; 2) with knowledge or gross negligence does not act 3) and this non-compliance soon causes the death of the other;.