Health Sciences 2610F/G Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Advance Healthcare Directive, Forego, Paternalism
12 Dec 2017
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Patient must receive adequate medical information on which to make a decision about whether to accept or refuse treatment. Patient must understand the nature of their condition and the consequences of accepting or refusing intervention. The patient"s autonomy outweighs the doctor"s duty of beneficence. Some think there should be a sliding scale for consent, the less competent a person is and the greater the risk in not intervening, the stronger reasons and justifications there are for overriding a patient"s refusal of treatment. >however if a patient refuse because of invasiveness, they can be exercising their right to bodily non-interference. In this case more weight should be given to the patient"s autonomy and less to physician paternalism. Patients have a right to medicine only when there is some therapeutic benefit and thus falls into the goals of medicine (relieving pain and suffering and returning patients to normal functioning)
