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Consent to treatment

Trust matters as much as information

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Teifion Davies*
Affiliation:
Academic Unit of Psychiatry, North Wing, UMDS-St Thomas' Hospital, London SE1 7EH
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Abstract

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The legal and moral status of the concept of consent are examined. The notion of informed consent as the sole basis for acceptable treatment is found to raise moral difficulties and to have potentially damaging side-effects on the relationship between doctors and patients. It is argued that developing trust between doctor and patient is crucial to obtaining valid consent.

Type
Original Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

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