Due to the fact that relatively few people create an Advance Decision (AD) there is little case law to illustrate how the law would work if an attorney for Health and Care disagreed with the wording of an AD. What I have been advised is that were there to be a clash between the wording of the AD – for example, I would not want a blood transfusion to save my life – and the views of the attorney/s, the consultant in charge of the medical decision would probably defer to the form that was most recently created.
Please note however that in Section 5 of the LPA form for Health and Care the donor (person appointing attorneys) has to commit to one of 2 statements: either their attorney/s CAN make end of life decisions for them or they CANNOT. If you, as a donor, are going to choose the former, then you ought to be apprising your attorney/s of the wording of your AD so they don’t get any surprises.
It would be possible for a consultant to override both authorities (that of the LPA and that of the AD) but they would have to be very certain that if their decision was challenged at a later date, they could justify their decision ie WHY they felt they were right to ignore the AD and the attorney/s. If the AD existed and the attorney/s had no authority regarding end of life decisions, again, the consultant would have to be very sure that their final decision was justified in the eyes of the law.
You can speak with a solicitor about these issues although they will charge for their time.
