© 2004 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & Institute for Healthcare Improvement
COMMENTARY
Informed consent
Informed consent: don’t throw out the moral baby with the critical bath water
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor L Doyal
Department of Medical Ethics, Queen Mary, University of London, London E1 2AD, UK; l.doyal@qmul.ac.uk
Informed consent is one of the most important bricks in the edifice of "right" medical treatment, but low standards must be recognised and corrected
Keywords: patient consent; doctor-patient relationship; patients’ views; informed consent
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
It is well over two decades since Ian Kennedy published "Unmasking Medicine" based on his Reith lectures.1 He launched an inspired attack on medical paternalism in the UK which in many important respects has now been won—at least in principle. Clinical practice is now expected to embody the duty both to protect life and health and to respect individual autonomy—the right of competent patients to make informed choices about their medical options. Indeed, it is now both legally and professionally clear that, when these two duties are in conflict, the latter trumps the former. Ultimately, the competent adult patient has the final say about whether or not to accept or reject proposed treatment, even when refusing may mean death.
There is now a well articulated body of statute and case law designed to reinforce the right of patients to consent to or refuse treatment on the
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- Women’s accounts of consenting to surgery: is consent a quality problem?
- M Habiba, C Jackson, A Akkad, S Kenyon, and M Dixon-Woods
Qual. Saf. Health Care 2004 13: 422-427.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
