Certain forms of abuses in health-care settings that may cross a threshold of mistreatment that is tantamount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment 2013, para. 34
Paragraph
Paragraph text
In those cases, dubious grounds of medical necessity were used to justify intrusive and irreversible procedures performed on patients without full free and informed consent. In this light, it is therefore appropriate to question the doctrine of "medical necessity" established by the ECHR in the case of Herczegfalvy v. Austria (1992), where the Court held that continuously sedating and administering forcible feeding to a patient who was physically restrained by being tied to a bed for a period of two weeks was nonetheless consistent with article 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms because the treatment in question was medically necessary and in line with accepted psychiatric practice at that time.
Legal status
Non-negotiated soft law
Body
Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment