Informed Consent & End of Life

Informed Consent & End of Life

Elements of Informed Consent

Informed consent is the legal right of the patient to be provided with valid and sufficient information regarding the procedure or treatment. This means that the informed consent can only be valid if proper information free from any biasness is provided to patients. The information should be such that, it is complete in nature at the same time it is 100% valid. It has many a time been noticed that the person is not provided with procedures of treatment, which results in negativity for the patient. Thus, full treatment disclosures are to be done. The Patients have the right to refuse medical care or any other treatment for any reason (Stevens and Kenneth, 2006). The sole decision of whether to be treated or not to be treated in a particular manner depends on the patients.

There are various reason which affects the choice of the patients. This can be due to reasons like religion or on any personal grounds. In informed consent, there are three basic things like disclosure, capacity of the person and the free will of the patients. The disclosure point helps the patient in knowing the reality as to what sort of treatment will he or she have to go through and what sort of negative implications it can face. This is very important for the patient since the future quality of life or death depends on these treatments. In the capacity side we have to see if the person is capable of understanding things, is he in his state of mind etc. This is one of the main points of a valid informed consent. An immature mind or a person of unsound mind is not in a position to give an informed consent. If this issue is faced than the reprehensive of the person are to be contacted. The Last part is the free will of the patient. The patient has to be free in deciding his or her actions. He should not be coerced to act in a certain way or give his consent under the influence of other person.

Obtaining Informed Consent

In this case, the informed consent was obtained which has the three basic elements. They are proper disclosure, capacity of the person to understand the information and the free will of the patients (Nicholson, 2000). Mrs Sparza was not properly disclosed with the information as to what was the nature of operation. She was not disclosed with the information that she would be treated for both her eyes. As per the initial disclosure, she was to be operated in the right eye for which the doctors got her consent. When the operation was about to start they informed the patient that she would be operated in both the eyes. She was not willing to accept the decision in the initial phase but later on, the doctor convinced her although she was crying with tears. Thus, the disclosure was not properly done (Tom, ...