“Who Did the Operation?”— Empirical Legal Study and Refinement on “Informed Consent”

“Who Did the Operation?”— Empirical Legal Study and Refinement on “Informed Consent”

 

Title
“Who Did the Operation?”— Empirical Legal Study and Refinement on “Informed Consent”
Author
Chia-Jui Su
Keywords
Informed Consent, Ghost Surgery, Empirical Research, Medical Education
Abstract
“Informed consent” is the clinical implementation and expression of a patient’s
autonomy. However, it is very difficult to give a definite standard for the
scope and the details to be contained in an informed consent. If a surgery was performed
by a different operating surgeon without obtaining the patient’s prior informed
consent, this conduct could be referred to as “ghost surgery”. While the
opportunity to practice clinical skills has a unique role in the surgical education of
a young physician, teaching hospitals may hesitate to frankly inform the patient to
avoid patient’s refusal to be operated by a trainee physician. Therefore, this article
aims to refine the concept of “informed consent” by analyzing this dilemma between
medical education and patient’s autonomy. By adopting interdisciplinary
studies of comparative laws, medical standards, judicial decisions and empirical legal verifications, this article seeks to enrich the substance and understanding of
“informed consent” in Taiwan.
Abstract Article

210 Downloads

836 Downloads

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *