Patients have a legal and ethical right to direct what happens to their body, and medical professionals have the ethical duty to involve the patient in their health care.
In order for the patient's consent to be valid, they must be considered competent to make the decision at hand and consent must be voluntary.
Against Medical Advice =
A Patient's Right to Refuse.
The AMA decision is essentially a refusal of medical care. The competent adult patient has the right to refuse care. In Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, the United States Supreme Court determined that a competent person has a constitutionally protected liberty interest to refuse medical treatment. The court concluded that the U.S. Constitution would grant a competent person a constitutionally protected right