Informed Consent: Patient Autonomy and Physician Beneficence within Clinical Medicine

Substantial efforts have recently been made to reform the physician-patient relationship, particularly toward replacing the ‘silent world of doctor and patient' with informed patient participation in medical decision-making. This 'new ethos of patient autonomy' has especially insisted on the routine provision of informed consent for all medical interventions. Stronly supported by most bioethicists and the law, as well as more popular writings and expectations, it still seems clear that info...