Informed Consent and its Importance in Medical Care

Informed Consent and Medical Malpractice
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Informed Consent and Medical Malpractice
Background Information about Canterbury v. Spence and the Decision
In Canterbury v. Spence, the claimant was a 19-year-old clerk-typist working with the FBI. He sought medical intervention from a Washington Neurosurgeon, Dr. William T. Spence, who conducted a laminectomy on him. After the procedure, the claimant reportedly fell from his bed and, as a result, suffered major paralysis. Dr. Spence had not warned his patient that laminectomy carried roughly a 1 percent paralysis risk. In this case, the court maintained that the health care provider is legally required to provide any information that a reasonable individual would wish to know concerning a particular medical intervention prior to deciding to undergo it (Shenoy et al., 2022).
Informed Consent and Its Elements
To deliver effective medical care, patients must be empowered to make decisions concerning their health and medical interventions. Most patients lack the necessary health education to support their decision-making concerning their well-being and care interventions to be administered. Many patients depend on their healthcare provider for appropriate and accurate knowledge to support their ability to choose from a wide range of therapeutic options as well as make sound decisions to enhance their well-being (Cawich et al., 2013). Physicians have an ethical and legal responsibility to complete the above process before any therapeutic interventions, or physical examinations are conducted on their clients. Informed consent is an agreement between a physician and the patient based on the need for the former to fully disclose information relevant to the treatment, care, or service, which is the consent subject (The Joint Commission, 2016). In this agreement, the physician provides the patient with sufficient information about the medical intervention, including its alternatives, before performing such a course.
A valid and effective informed consent process comprises capacity, autonomy, and disclosure. Capacity within clinical contexts implies a client’s ability to comprehend data and knowledge relevant to effective decision-making, including any rationally predictable implications of their choices. Autonomy is a vital principle that supports informed consent within healthcare environments. Anglo-American laws safeguard a person’s freedom to choose and make independent decisions free from uninvited intrusion on themselves and such liberty. The informed consent procedure derives from the autonomy canon by mandating that a reasonable person accepts medical interventions or treatment without any form of deception, coercion, or force. Regarding disclosure, each patient should be provided with enough updated and relevant information to empower their ability to make a sound decision (Cawich et al., 2013).
Meaning of Reasonable Person Standard
The reasonable person standard is the standard that governs both the futuristic determination of material information and thus meeting the threshold for disclosure, as well as the backward-looking establishment of whether specific mater...