When a patient refuses treatment, this is an example of ____

Common law allows a mentally competent adult to refuse medical treatment, even if it hastens death. Also called case or precedent law, it's based on past cases of a similar type. Individual cases contribute to the precedence for resolving a legal conflict. The right to refuse treatment is based on U.S. cases from 1891 and 1914. The judgment of the 1914 case (Schloendorff v. Society of New York Hospital) states, "Every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body..."