Informed Consent: Does that Include Personal Detailing of Your Doctor?

There is still debate in the medical, ethical and legislative community as to how much information is enough as part of informed consent for the patient or the patient's surrogate to make a decision as to whether to have an operation or other procedure or medical treatment.  And is there such a thing as "too much information" for the patient to be told and expected to understand? That is still debatable. There is no debate as to the legal necessity for a patient's autonomous decision regarding their treatment but the question is "how much?" but also "what kind?"  For this thread I want to focus on a specific category of "what kind?" and that is: should the patient be permitted to ask personal questions about the doctor and followed by detailing by the doctor to the patient regarding the doctor as a person and as a professional.  Lance K. Stell PhD, teacher-ethicist, has specified my focus with the following:Traditionally, Informed Consent disclosure duties of the physician were “procedure focused” NOT provider focused.Some states (e.g. Pennsylvania and North Carolina) have aggressively restricted statutory Informed Consent disclosures to the recommended procedure, and its alternatives, including the option of no procedure, along with a discussion of the risk/benefits of each option.Other states have expanded the physician’s disclosure duty toinclude the extent of his/her training and experience with the particularoperation (and the hospital's) when the ou...
Source: Bioethics Discussion Blog - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Source Type: blogs