The Legal and Ethical Aspects Associated with Consent

End of Life Decisions
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End of Life Decisions
Medical practice today has changed and continues to undergo significant modification. Unlike in the past, various factors impinge on the patient-doctor interactions. Reciprocal trust forms the basis for a good relationship between the patient and doctor. With much contradicting information about health and disease, patients tend to visit doctors with unrealistic expectations and unreasonable demands. Consequently, educating patients and availing sufficient details on realities, and acquiring informed consent before subjecting a patient to any procedure is quite quintessential.
Consent is a tool of interactive communication between a patient and doctor with an expression of authorization by the latter for the former to act distinctly. Consent carries both ethical and legal aspects. From the ethical point, fundamental human rights and patient autonomy concepts arise. The patient has the right to decide what and what not to happen to their body and to collect information before undergoing surgery or a test ("Your guide to living wills and other advance directives," 2020). The patient bears the right to act in a particular way without coercion. The role of the organization or doctor, in this case, lies only in facilitating the patient's decision making and serving as an expert witness. Since they have greater power in the relationship, the organization has an ethical duty to set proper boundaries and act professionally in their association with patients. On the legal aspect, no person has a right to touch or treat another individual. When such acts are executed without permission, they are labeled as physical assault, which is legally punishable. Thus, doctors must obtain consent for any procedure that goes beyond routine physical testing.
Advance medical directives are a legal report that allows one to fill out their advanced directives. one needs a valid witness, not necessarily a lawyer, to fill the document. Doctors implement it once they evaluate the patient and determine an emergency. States honor advance directives differently be...