Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-7qhmt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T18:03:05.464Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Consent to treatment

Trust matters as much as information

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Teifion Davies*
Affiliation:
Academic Unit of Psychiatry, North Wing, UMDS-St Thomas' Hospital, London SE1 7EH
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The legal and moral status of the concept of consent are examined. The notion of informed consent as the sole basis for acceptable treatment is found to raise moral difficulties and to have potentially damaging side-effects on the relationship between doctors and patients. It is argued that developing trust between doctor and patient is crucial to obtaining valid consent.

Type
Original Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

References

British Medical Association (1992) Rights and Responsibilities of Doctors (2nd edn). London: BMJ Publishing Group.Google Scholar
British Medical Association (1995) Advance Statements About Medical Treatment. London: BMJ Publishing Group.Google Scholar
British Medical Association & The Law Society (1995) Assessment of Mental Capacity: Guidance for Doctors and Lawyers. London: BMA.Google Scholar
Burns, A. & Harris, J. (1996) Ethical issues in dementia. Psychiatric Bulletin, 20, 107108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delaney, L., Month, S., Savulescu, J., et al (1996) Altruism by proxy: volunteering children for bone marrow donation. British Medical Journal, 312, 240243.Google Scholar
Department of Health (1993) Code of Practice: Mental Health Act 1983 (2nd ed). London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Department of Health (1996) A Guide to Consent for Examination or Treatment [Replaces Health Circular HC(90)22.] London: DoH.Google Scholar
Dyer, C. (1996) Doctors and lawyers unite on incapacity laws. British Medical Journal, 312, 203.Google Scholar
General Medical Council (1995) Duties of a Doctor. Good Medical Practice. London: GMC.Google Scholar
Glover, J. (1990) Causing Death and Saving lives. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Jones, G. H. (1995) Informed consent in chronic schizophrenia? British Journal of Psychiatry, 167, 565568.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mitchell, J. (1995) A fundamental problem of consent British Medical Journal, 310, 4348.Google Scholar
Oyebode, F. (1996) Choosing death: the moral status of suicide. Psychiatric Bulletin, 20, 8589.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Summerton, N. (1995) Positive and negative factors in defensive medicine: a questionnaire study of general practitioners. British Medical Journal, 310, 2729.Google Scholar
Summerton, N. (1996) Defensive medical practice. Journal of the Medical and Dental Defence Union, 12, 89.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.