Patient autonomy is not always the most important thing to respect and honor. There will always be situations where medical paternalism is justified. Justifiable paternalism from a medical perspective involves prolonging the lives of patients by allowing them to exercise their autonomy. Failure to respect a patient's requests or refusals of treatment constitutes a violation of autonomy at this time of their illness. Even if the preceding statement is true, the healthcare professional is violating the patient's future autonomy. For this reason, medical professionals have the right to act in a paternalistic manner. Medical paternalism is therefore justified through future autonomy and patient promotion obligations.