These are the only exceptions to the rule that a person must give their consent to treatment or an operation:

• If a patient needs emergency treatment
• Testing done on blood donations
• Mentally ill patients. In this case the mental hospital must get permission from one of the following people: the patient’s husband or wife, parent, child (if the child is 21 or older), brother or sister.
• HIV tests are routinely done on the blood of all pregnant women for health research, but the name of the woman is not attached to the blood sample, so no-one knows whose blood it is