Medical Informed Consent is at the Very Heart of Canada’s Consent-Based, Personalized Medical System.
The core of medical ethics in Canada, as elsewhere, is informed consent. Medical informed consent is only possible when the risks and benefits of both a treatment, and a treatment’s alternatives, are provided to the patient, and when that patient is given the choice to take or refuse treatment while remaining free from fear or coercion. The doctor-patient relationship is focused upon the integral well-being of the individual patient, and it is this doctor-patient relationship that both enables and safeguards this medical informed consent.
Doctors have made a promise to do no harm to their patients. This promise is the primary focus of the Hippocratic oath, a formal statement of medical ethics that dates back to the classical period of Ancient Greece. It is each doctor’s fiduciary duty to provide patients with the balance of evidence for and against given treatments. The word fiduciary is derived from the Latin fidere, which means to trust. As such, a fiduciary duty is when one person is entrusted to take care of the interests of another. In keeping, then, with the Hippocratic oath and the relationship of trust between doctor and patient, the evidence for and against treatment options must be presented clearly to patients, so that it facilitates their informed, yet still autonomous, decision making.
To properly support a patient’s informed consent, the medical professional must have an up-to-date understanding of the available research, the risks and harms of treatment options, and the patient’s unique clinical situation. As the patient’s advocate, the medical professional must also show consideration for the particular preferences that inform the patient’s decision-making process with respect to treatment.
