I have to say that I'm not impressed with the people calling for you to lose your job. "The health of my patient will be my first consideration" - Current version of the Declaration of Geneva What would these people who objected do, if faced with someone they thought would die? More to the point, they had been called to assist this person - that gives them literal and moral responsibility in the event of that persons death. It really comes down to whether or not the person was qualified to make the decision, and I would say on the balance of what you've reported that they weren't. They had expressed no direct desire to die, and yet they believed that the best course of action was not to be treated - but having said that, they were still recovering from unconsciousness and could reasonably be believed to not be totally mentally competent for this reason. Some of these lynch-mob commentators would be the first in line to condemn you if you'd left the patient and the patient had subsequently died. Most would probably condemn you if you'd got the police involved but the delay that would inevitably cause had cost him his life. A term has been coined in American politics: the 151st Keyboardists, the group of people who can make these decisions right 100% of these times from behind a keyboard, and hold people to judgement if they decide something different. Don't let them get you down. I remember on an episode of "Car Wars" a police officer suddenly deciding to pull over a car because 'something wasn't right'. She couldn't say exactly what that something was, either at the time or afterwards - but it turned out to be completely accurate... the car had been stolen, but not reported as such at the time. My point is, when you've been in the job for a time, you develop instincts. Instincts that cannot be easily explained, but often prove to be right. In this case, you followed your instincts and doing so probably saved this patients life where not doing so would have cost it. You made the right decision. You may not have pleased the 151st Keyboardists, but you saved a life, and that's your job. Good call, Tom