Autonomy and consent
Informed consent, decision-making capacity, minors, emergencies, surrogate decisions and refusal of treatment.
12 pages
Topic
- Consent in emergencies and the exceptions to consentIn a life-threatening emergency, with the patient unable to decide and no surrogate available…
- Consent in minors: progressive autonomy in Colombian lawParents authorise their children's treatment, but the minor's view weighs more the more mature…
- Placebos and deception in clinical practiceGiving a placebo while letting the patient believe it is an active treatment is deception
- Refusing treatment, including blood transfusionA capable adult may refuse any treatment, even a life-saving one, and the doctor must respect…
- Standards of disclosure: what must the patient be told?Three standards decide how much to disclose; today what counts is what a reasonable patient, or…
- Suicide prevention and paternalismIntervening when there is a risk of suicide is usually justified as soft paternalism: protecting…
- Surrogate decisions: substituted judgement and best interestsWhen a patient cannot decide, someone else decides by what the patient would have wanted or, if…
- Theories of autonomy: individual, relational and family-centredAutonomy does not always mean deciding alone: many people decide with their family or with…
- Understanding in consent: framing, false beliefs and how to checkInforming is not enough: the patient must understand
- Voluntariness: coercion, persuasion and manipulationA decision is voluntary if no one else controls it
Procedure
- Decision-making capacity (competence) and how to assess itDecision-making capacity is a person's ability to make one specific medical decision; the doctor…
- Informed consent: elements and how to obtain itBefore a treatment, a patient with capacity gets clear information and freely decides whether to…
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