MENTAL HEALTH ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1961

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MENTAL HEALTH ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1961 - SECT 37



37.(1) In this Act "relative" means any of the following, that is to say

(a)husband or wife;

(b)son or daughter;

(c)father;

(d)mother;

(e)brother or sister;

(f)grandparent;

(g)grandchild;

(h)uncle or aunt;

(i)nephew or niece.

(2) In deducing relationship for the purposes of this section, an adopted
person shall be treated as the child of the person or persons by whom he was
adopted and not as the child of any other person; and, subject to that,
brothers and sisters of the half-blood shall be treated as brothers and
sisters of the whole blood, and an illegitimate person shall be treated as the
legitimate child of his mother.

(3) In this Act, subject to the provisions of this section and the following
provisions of this Part, the "nearest relative" means the person first
mentioned in sub-section (1) who is caring for the patient, or was so caring
immediately before the admission of the patient to a hospital or his reception
into guardianship, failing whom the person first so mentioned who is for the
time being surviving, brothers and sisters of the whole blood being preferred
to brothers and sisters of the half-blood, and the elder or eldest of two or
more relatives mentioned in any paragraph of that sub-section being preferred
to the other or others of those relatives, regardless of sex.

(4) Where the person who, under sub-section (3) would be the nearest relative
of a patient

(a)is not ordinarily resident within the United Kingdom; or

(b)being the husband or wife of the patient, is permanently separated from
the patient, either by agreement or under an order of a court, or has deserted
or has been deserted by the patient for a period which has not come to an end;
or

(c)not being the husband, wife, father or mother of the patient, is for the
time being under [eighteen] years of age; or

(d)is a man against whom an order divesting him of authority over the patient
has been made under sub-section (4) of section one of the
Punishment of Incest Act, 1908 (which relates to incest with a girl under
twenty-one), and has not been rescinded;

(5) In this section "adopted" means adopted in pursuance of an order for the
adoption of any person made under the Adoption of Children Act (Northern
Ireland), 1950, or any previous enactment relating to the adoption of
children, or any corresponding enactment of the Parliament of the United
Kingdom, and "court" includes a court in England and Wales or Scotland.

(6) In this section "husband" and "wife" include a person who is living with
the patient as the patient's husband or wife (or, if the patient is for the
time being an in-patient in a hospital, was so living until the patient was
admitted), and has been or had been so living for a period of not less than
six months; but a person shall not be treated by virtue of this sub-section as
the nearest relative of a married patient unless the husband or wife of
the patient is disregarded by virtue of paragraph (b) of sub-section (4).

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Northern Irish Legislation

MENTAL HEALTH ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1961 - SECT 37