PP217 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Idiosyncrasy, Mental Disorder, Paraplegia
Document Summary
A moral theory of informed consent benjamin freedman. There is no fail safe procedure which we can fall back on in cases of doubt (about whether valid consent was given or not). Rather, what is required is an exhaustive examination of each case and issue, to see whether or not a valid consent has in fact been obtained. We require informed consent to protect a doctor from legal liability. Freed(cid:373)a(cid:374) (cid:272)o(cid:374)siders the ter(cid:373) (cid:862)i(cid:374)for(cid:373)ed (cid:272)o(cid:374)se(cid:374)t(cid:863) to (cid:271)e a(cid:374) i(cid:374)a(cid:272)(cid:272)urate refle(cid:272)tio(cid:374) of what we want medical practice to conform to. In reality, the patient does not need to know every detail about an operation before giving informed consent. Freedman states that informing of a patient is not a fundamental requirement of a valid consent. In this way we avoid the danger of only upholding those choices which we ourselves feel are good, as responsible. The primary legal and ethical tool for protecting patient autonomy is the requirement of informed consent.
