PHIL226 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Informed Consent, Paternalism, Decision-Making
Document Summary
Strong paternalist: believes that sometimes paternalistic behaviour can be justified in the case of the competent. Surrogate decision maker: when incompetency is established, someone else makes decisions for patient- can include parents, relatives, etc. Surrogate decision maker must also be fully informed and must consent to treatments. Advance directives: like a living will- gives instructions on what patient wants. Feminist challenges to autonomy based doctor patient relationship. Autonomy ignores questions about the extent to which the pt is able to make genuinely autonomous choices, given social political and medical context within which the choices are made. Sherwin suggests that four conditions need to be met for pts to make autonomous choices: patient is competent, choice should be reasonable, pt has been given sufficient info about possibilities available, and choice is free and uncoerced. Competency is usually linked to rationality, and the rationality of women and other minority groups usually denied.