Singapore legislation
Clause 10
Clause 10
Duty of medical practitioner
(1)
A medical practitioner or any person who acts under the instructions of a medical practitioner, who for any reason objects to acting on a directive shall register his objection in the prescribed form to this effect and register it with the Registrar and such objection may be revoked by notifying the Registrar in the prescribed form.
(2)
Where a person who has made a directive in accordance with section 3 has been determined in accordance with section 9 to be suffering from a terminal illness, it shall be the duty of that medical practitioner responsible for his treatment (unless he has registered his objection under subsection (1)) to act in accordance with the directive unless there is reasonable ground to believe —
that the person has revoked the directive, whether in writing, orally or in any other way in which he can communicate;
that the person has, whether in writing, orally or in any other way, communicated his intention to revoke the directive; or
that the person was not, at the time of making the directive, capable of understanding the nature and consequences of the directive.
(3)
Before a medical practitioner acts in accordance with a directive, he shall —
ascertain from the Registrar that the directive has been registered under section 5 and is in force;
ensure that the patient has been certified to be terminally ill in accordance with section 9; and
as far as may be practicable determine and certify in writing whether the patient is pregnant with a foetus which will probably develop to the point of live birth.
(4)
Where a medical practitioner has registered his objection under subsection (1), he shall, in the circumstances referred to in subsection (2), take all reasonable steps as soon as practicable for the care of the patient to be transferred to another medical practitioner who has not registered such an objection.
(5)
Extraordinary life-sustaining treatment shall not be withheld or withdrawn pursuant to this section from a patient known to the medical practitioner to be pregnant so long as it is probable that the foetus will develop to the point of live birth with continued application of extraordinary life-sustaining treatment.