Η έννοια της συγκατάθεσης ως έκφραση αυτονομίας του ασθενούς

Abstract

This article focuses on the concept and significance of the patient’s consent in the contemporary medical theory and practice. It is emphasized that, despite the fact that the Hippocratic oath and the previous medical tradition acknowledge the doctor as the agent of the dicision on behalf of the patient, the philosophical liberal tradition has ascribed the responsibility for the medical decision to the patient himself. As the proponent of the freedom of thought and the freedom of goals of the individual J.S. Mill remarks, one’s own freedom is actualized when he pursues his own good, in his own way. As a consequence, the theoretics of Biothics have established the model of “informed consent” with the purpose of avoiding whatever intervention attempted by the doctor to the patient’s subjective decision for the course of his life.
Consequently, the consent, as the expression of the patient’s autonomy and the right of self-determination, fulfills in the medical practice the negative right of freedom within the vein of the liberal tradition. The significance, however, of the positive right of patient’s freedom is considerable too, as it presupposes the satisfaction -by taking active steps- of the necessary conditions that allows for the patient to choose freely and to pursue successfully his goals. J. Savulescu provides us with a theoretical analysis of the factors that reflect the rational desire of the patient, which is very illuminating indeed for the development of the appropriate conditions that fulfill the rational and really autonomous choice of the patient in the medical practice. In this vein, the rational capability and desire of the patient constitutes a significant presupposition for a substantial application of the model of “informed consent” - a model that has been established to protect the patient’s positive and negative right of self-determination in the medical field.