Informed consent is central to the law of the physicianpatient relationship, respecting patient autonomy. This paper addresses a conflict between law and medicine in defining informed consent. Additionally, it addresses the possibility that patients prefer not to be “informed“ and would defer decision-making to their physicians.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
See M. D.Ginsberg, “Informed Consent: No Longer Just What the Doctor Ordered? The ‘Contributions’ of Medical Associations and Courts to a More Patient Friendly Doctrine,”Michigan State University Journal of Medicine & Law15 (2010): 17-69 [hereinafter Ginsberg I].
2.
See, e.g., Jarrell v. Kaul, 123 A.3d 1022, 1029 (N.J. 2015) (holding that a physician is not obligated to disclose the lack of professional liability insurance coverage in order to obtain a patient's informed consent); Jandre v. Wis. Injured Patients & Families Comp. Fund, 813 N.W.2d 627, 640 (Wis. 2012) (requiring the disclosure of the differential diagnosis in order to obtain informed consent); Stuart v. Camnitz, 774 F.3d 238, 244 (4th Cir. 2014) (informed consent and the First Amendment); see also W. K.Mariner and G. J.Annas, “Informed Consent and the First Amendment,”New England Journal of Medicine372, no. 14 (2015): 1285-87. The law of informed consent has recently changed in the United Kingdom to a more patient friendly doctrine. Montgomery v. Lanarkshire Health Bd., [2015] UKSC 11. See also E. Larner and R. Carter, “The Issue Of Consent In Medical Practice,” British Journal of Haematology 172, no. 2 (2016) 300-04 (2016); J. Montgomery and E. Montgomery, “Montgomery on Informed Consent: An Inexpert Decision?” Journal of Medical Ethics 42, no. 2 (2016) 89-94.
3.
Ginsberg I, supra note 1, at 18.
4.
M. D.Ginsberg, “Informed Consent and the Differential Diagnosis: How the Law Can Overestimate Patient Autonomy and Compromise Health Care,”Wayne Law Review60 (2014): 349-94 at 351 [hereinafter Ginsberg II].
5.
P.Dalla-Vorgra, J.Lascaratos, P.Skiadas, and T.Garanis-Papadaros, “Is Consent in Medicine a Concept only of Modern Times?”Journal of Medical Ethics27, no. 1 (2001): 59-61.
6.
105 N.E. 92 (N.Y. 1914) (Cardozo, J.), abrogated by Bing v. Thunig, 143 N.E. 2d 3 (N.Y. 1957).
7.
Id., at 93.
8.
B. R.Furrow, T. L.Greaney, S. H.Johnson, T. StoltzfusJost, and R. L.Schwartz, Health Law, (3d ed. 2015): § 3-9, at 121.
9.
Id., at 122.
10.
Id. § 3-2, at 76-77.
11.
Id. § 3-10, at 123-124.
12.
464 F.2d 772 (D.C. Cir. 1972).
13.
Id., at 786-87.
14.
464 F.2d 772.
15.
Id. at 783, n.36.
16.
See S.Garrod and M. J.Pickering, “Why Is Conversation So Easy?”Trends in Cognitive Sciences8, no. 1 (2004): 8-11 (defining dialogue as holding a conversation).
17.
See B. D.Weiss, Health Literacy and Patient Safety: Help Patients Understand – Manual For Clinicians, (American Medical Association Foundation, 2d ed. 2007): at 15, available at <http://med.fsu.edu/userFiles/file/ahec_health_clinicians_manual.pdf> (last visited January 17, 2017)..
18.
464 F.2d 772.
19.
D. F.Ransohoff, M.Pignone, and H. C.Sox, “How to Decide Whether a Clinical Practice Guideline is Trustworthy,”JAMA309, no. 2 (2013): at 139-40.
20.
464 F.2d 772.
21.
Id.
22.
Id., at 784 (emphasis added).
23.
See also E.Wertheimer, “Calling It a Leg Doesn't Make it a Leg: Doctors, Lawyers, and Tort Reform,”Roger Williams University Law Review13 (2008): 154-88, at 160-62 (discussing the tension between medicine and law regarding the law of informed consent); M. D. Altschule, “Bad Law, Bad Medicine,” American Journal of Law & Medicine 3, no. 3 (1977): 295-302, at 297 (suggesting that the American legal system should utilize juries of experts, not laypersons, in medical negligence trials).
24.
813 N.W. 2d 627 (Wis. 2012).
25.
Ginsberg II, supra note 4, at 371-74.
26.
813 N.W. 2d 627 (Wis. 2012).
27.
V.Blake, “Medicine, the Law and Conceptions of Evidence,”Virtual Mentor15, no. 1 (2013): 46-50.
28.
See R. A.Burt, “Doctors vs. Lawyers: The Perils of Perfectionism,”Saint Louis University Law Journal53, no. 4 (2009): 1177-88, at 1185.
29.
Id.
30.
W.Levinson, A.Kao, A.Kuby, and R. A.Thisted, “Not All Patients Want To Participate In Decision Making,”Journal of General Internal Medicine20, no. 6 (2005): 531-35, at 533.
31.
O.Corrigan, “Empty Ethics: The Problem with Informed Consent,”Sociology of Health & Illness2, no. 7 (2003): 768-792, at 787 (citing J. Tobias, “Changing The British Medical Journal's Position On Informed Consent Would Be Counterproductive,” BMJ 316, no. 7136 (1998): 1001-02, at 1002; See also D. Dickinson, et al., “What Information Do Patients Need About Medicines?” BMJ 327, no. 7419 (2003): 861, 861.
32.
464 F.2d 772.
33.
C.Grady, “Enduring and Emerging Challenges of Informed Consent,”New England Journal of Medicine372, no. 22 (2015): 855-62, at 856 (“Informed consent is a process of communication between the health care provider … and the patient … that ultimately culminates in the authorization or refusal of a specific intervention…”).
34.
S. N.Whitney, A. L.McGuide and L. B.McCullough, “A Typology of Shared Decision Making, Informed Consent, and Simple Consent,”Annals of Internal Medicine140, no. 1 (2003): 54-59, at 54. See also D. N. Patel et al., “Preoperative Consent for Patients with Limited English Proficiency,” Journal of Surgical Research 200, no. 2 (2016): 514-22, at 515.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Committee Opinion No. 439 (August 2009) (reaff'd 2015).
40.
Id.
41.
See A.Meisel and M.Kuczewski, “Legal and Ethical Myths About Informed Consent,”Archives of Internal Medicine156, no. 22 (1996): 2521-26, at 2522.
42.
Ginsberg II, supra note 4, at 392 (citing D.Nutbeam, “Defining and Measuring Health Literacy: What Can We Learn from Literacy Studies,”International Journal of Public Health54, no. 5 (2009): 303-05, at 304; B. Lorenzen et al., “Using Principles of Health Literacy to Enhance the Informed Consent Process,” AORN Journal 88, no. 1 (2008): 23-29 (quoting L. Nielsen-Bohlman, A. M. Panzer, and D. A. Kindig, eds., Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion [New York: National Academies Press, 2004]: at 37).
43.
X.Chen, P.Goodson, and S.Acosta, “Blending Health Literacy with an English as a Second Language Curriculum: A Systematic Literature Review,”Journal of Health Communication20, no. 2 (2015): 101-11 (referring to the Institute of Medicine).
44.
464 F.2d 772.
45.
Id.
46.
See Ginsberg I, supra note 1; Ginsberg II, supra note 4.
