Informed Consent in Providing Health-Care

1278 Words3 Pages

“Action X is an informed consent by person P to intervention I if and only if:

1. P receives a thorough disclosure regarding I

2. P comprehends the disclosure

3. P acts voluntarily in performing X

4. P is competent to perform X, and

5. P consents to I” (Faden 274).

The usage of informed consent is considered to be an essential component to providing healthcare and creating a good patient-physician relationship. The most standard model of Informed consent says you must have the following essentials to be considered authentic informed consent: disclosure, understanding (true understanding), voluntariness, competence and most importantly actual given consent. The interesting fact about informed consent is though most people are ardent on including this in the patient-physician decision making dynamics; it doesn’t guarantee or add any more certainty that decisions will be autonomous. There are two types of informed consent: one from a practical and logical position (Sense1) and the other from the legal or institutionalized component (Sense 2). Competency is voided in the usage of Sense 2 informed consent; there is not a push for explicit comprehension of the information as long as there is properly followed protocol. Sense 2 informed consent increases the likelihood of lost autonomy and higher rates of ill-conceived incompetence due to misunderstandings. I will be discussing Sense 2 informed consent and how it specifically relates to competence; as well as why the elements of competency are considered normative.

“Sense 2 or effective consent as many called it, is policy-oriented with conditions that are not derivable from analysis of autonomy authorization or respect for autonomy . . . it refers to legally or institution...

... middle of paper ...

... event arises and it was due to lack of assessment of genuine comprehension. I think the best system of obtain consent would incorporate a regulated system that accommodated each institution and their requirements, but also equally weighed the importance of true understanding of facts and realization of the patient’s capacity to make decisions. But even if this was established as standard practice, there would still be the issue of how the assessment is made and how accurate it is due to other influences i.e. current injury status or medications needed for full psychological and or conceptual functioning. There could also be an issue of how to regulate such a subjective issue; each physician is going to have different ethical views and this will inevitably influence how he/she assess the patient and their ability to make the best decisions concerning their health.

Open Document