The Right to Refuse Healthcare

A patient of full legal capacity shall have the right to refusehealthcare, unless its absence would endanger the lives or physical safety of others.

Patients shall be required to refuse the provision of any care, the absence of whichwould be likely to result in serious or permanent impairment of their health, in a public deed orin a fully conclusive private deed, or in the case of an inability to write, in the joint presence oftwo witnesses.

The right to refuse healthcare shall not be confused with the right to to deny healthcare when attending physicians directly involved in providing the patient care might deny the examination of the patients turning to them for help.

Patients of full legal capacity, in a public deed, shall thus refuse

such examinations or interventions that do not endanger the lives or physical safety of others;
lifesaving or life preserving interventions that enable the natural course of the disease;
certain lifesaving or life preserving interventions if they suffer from an incurable disease and thus are incapable of providing physical care for themselves, and their pain cannot be alleviated not even by adequate medical care.

For the case of legal incapacity, the capable patient shall have the right to designate a proxy in a public deed. The proxy can exercise the certain rights in lieu of the patient.

In the course of refusing healthcare, patients and their representatives shall not be forced to change any of their decisions.