1. Included in the duty of the medical personnel to treat the patient with consideration and respect is also the requirement that no patient must be forced to take a certain treatment or care. This means that all methods, interventions and,medical care demand the consent of the patient.
   Health and Medical services shall be conducted so as to meet the requirements of good care - one such requirement being the obligation to respect the patient's self determination. Care and treatment shall as far as possible be designed and conducted in consultation with the patient.
2. In principle, every patient has an unlimited right to decline treatment and may thus insist that a particular measure be immediately discontinued or never taken at all. In such situations, however, an assessment may have to be made of the patient’s legal competence. Special deliberations are also required when the patient is unconscious, dazed or otherwise incapable of giving legally valid permission for an action. This gives a certain amount of scope for the presumption of consent. Difficult questions of assessment can arise.
3. Health care personnel have an obligation to obtain consent from the patient prior to any form of physical intervention. There are, however, no special requirements for formal consent except for invasive interventions such as organtransplantation.
4. In principle, the patient has an unrestricted right to refrain from care. But this right to self-determination does not lead to a corresponding right for the patients to decide on the content and extent of the care, for instance the choice of treatment methods. Here the resources and the claims on scientific knowledge and professional experience can be setting limits too. If a patient refuses to have a blood transfusion this will, as a consequence, be respected. A condition is that he/ she is not a minor or is going to be investigated is the patient’s ability to understand information and the consequences of his/ her standpoint.
5. Medical care without the consent of the patient is only allowed when explicitly stated in the statutory text. The possibilities of medical care without the consent of the patient are to be found in different statutes. For example, castration can be performed without the consent of the patient, according to the Castration Act (1944:133), if the patient, because of mental disorder is unable to consent to the intervention. Furthermore, in the Care of Young People Act (1990:52), in the Care of People Abusing Drugs Act (1988:870), in the Psychiatric Compulsion Care Act (1991:1128) provisions are found that the care of the person may take place without his/her consent. In the latter law rules are also found which allow for medical treatment without the patient's consent. The Epidemic Diseases Act (1988:1472) contains provisions of compulsory examination (§36), temporarily taking care (§37) and compulsory isolation (§§38-42) of the person who is suspected of carrying an epidemic disease or a disease that poses public danger, if measures cannot be taken on a voluntary basis. Certain provisions also exist concerning limitations of the personal freedom etc. for the person who is in compulsory isolation (§§44-48). Contrary to what was the case earlier (the Epidemic Diseases Act (1968:231) §8, §14) it is not allowed to treat the person with the epidemic disease against his/her will.

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