Resolving End-of-Life Treatment Conflicts: Comparing the COP in England to Analogous Mechanisms in Ontario, California, and Texas

Thaddeus Mason Pope (Queensland University of Technology), Resolving End-of-Life Treatment Conflicts: Comparing the COP in England to Analogous Mechanisms in Ontario, California, and Texas, SSRN (2021):

This brief article for the Open Justice Court of Protection Project compares the UK Court of Protection to analogous dispute resolution mechanisms in Canada and the United States.

All three mechanisms resolve the small subset of conflicts that are intractable to informal and intramural processes such as mediation and clinical ethics consultation. And while all three mechanisms adjudicate issues other than end-of-life treatment disputes, these may be the most consequential type of case. I compare how each mechanism affords procedural due process in terms of (1) neutrality, (2) transparency, and (3) competence.