Syndicated columnist Judy Foreman has a good column on informed consent. In it, one ethicist says that too often "the ideals of informed consent get reduced to creating a paper trail for medico-legal and bureaucratic reasons." Another says that often, the informed consent process is geared to "protecting the doctor and hospital from malpractice," not empowering the patient.
Foreman includes good information on how and when the process should work, what informed consent should include, and on what consumers can do to protect themselves.
Posted by schwitz at August 4, 2005 08:25 AM | TrackBack