Legal Rights of Persons With Disabilities - Ossh.com

People with mental or developmental disabilities have a right to prompt medical care and
treatment. (Welf. & Inst. Code, '' 4502, subd. (d), and 5325.1, subd. (d).) Health care professionals, such
as physicians, social workers, psychologists, physical therapists, and nurses licensed by the state, are
subject to disciplinary action if they discriminate against people who are physically disabled. The State
Department of Consumer Affairs regulates licensed professionals, and complaints concerning
discriminatory practices should be made to the board or commission within the Department of Consumer
Affairs which regulates the particular profession.
Physicians who intentionally violate any rights of involuntarily confined people with mental
disabilities are engaging in unprofessional conduct and are subject to disciplinary proceedings. Complaints
can be filed with the Division of Medical Quality of the Board of Medical Quality Assurance. (Bus. &
Prof. Code, ' 100 et seq.) (See Chapter 10 for more information on the rights of people with mental and
developmental disabilities.)
A. Medical Care for Newborns With Disabilities
The Federal Child Abuse Amendments of 1984 address the withholding of medical treatment from
infants with disabilities. The amendments attempt to ensure that decisions about medical treatment for
handicapped infants are not made on the basis of subjective opinions concerning the future "quality of life"
of a person with a disability. (42 U.S.C. ' 5101 et seq.; 45 C.F.R. ' 1340.15.)
The amendments set certain requirements for states which wish to receive federal money. To
receive federal money, state Child Protective Service (CPS) agencies must enact a system of responding to
reports of medical neglect. (State CPS agencies are already responsible for responding to reports of child
abuse and neglect.) AMedical neglect@ means the withholding of medically indicated treatment from
infants with life-threatening disabilities. "Withholding of medically indicated treatment" means the failure
to respond to the infant's life-threatening conditions by providing treatment which, in the physician's
reasonable medical judgment, would be effective in helping or correcting all such conditions. (See 42
U.S.C. ' 5106a; Bowen v. American Hospital Assn. (1986) 476 U.S. 610.)
Treatment may only be withheld when:
$ the infant is chronically and irreversibly comatose; or
$ the provision of treatment would merely prolong dying or not be effective in treating the
infant's life-threatening conditions, or would be futile in saving the infant; or
$ the treatment itself would be inhumane.
Even when treatment may be withheld, appropriate food, water, and medicine must be provided.
(42 U.S.C. ' 5101 et seq.; 45 C.F.R. ' 1340.15.)
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