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Personalized Disclosure by Information-on-Demand: Attending to Patients' Needs in the Informed Consent Process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Gil Siegal ,
Richard J. Bonnie  and
Paul S. Appelbaum
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Extract

In an explicit attempt to reduce physician paternalism and encourage patient participation in making health care decisions, the informed consent doctrine has become a foundational precept in medical ethics and health law. The underlying ethical principle on which informed consent rests — autonomy — embodies the idea that as rational moral agents, patients should be in command of decisions that relate to their bodies and lives. The corollary obligation of physicians to respect and facilitate patient autonomy is reflected in the rules that have been created to implement consent procedures, especially those requiring disclosure of relevant information.

However, there are many practical impediments to patient self-determination in health care decisionmaking. Well-meaning physicians often lack the time to live up to the ideal of facilitating genuine, informed deliberation with and by their patients, and many lack the motivation or skill to do so successfully.

Type
Independent
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , Summer 2012 , pp. 359 - 367
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2012

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References

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