Health Care Ethics in Canada - Term Paper Example

Informed Consent Ethics in medical treatment and research is founded on the principle of informed consent. Apart from treatment of patients, medical professionals today are also engaged in researching on their area of practice, and gathering new knowledge in order to improve their practice in future. Medical professionals in research interact with their research subject at a higher level. In medical treatment, these develop a relationship with their patients. It is thus, imperative that they maintain and safeguard the interests of their patients and subjects, who might as well be their patients or other healthy individuals. To ensure this, medical professionals have to understand the role and importance of informed consent, and apply it in their treatment and research processes. Informed consent is important as it helps patients to make their independent decisions about their treatment, and helps research participants to decide independently whether to participate in a research, without being coerced (Carmen and Joffe WEB). This paper discusses the importance of informed consent in medical treatment and research, as well as the different ethical issues arising in the course of informed consent in medical treatment and research. The concept of informed consent can be traced to different disciplines, including law, medicine, and philosophy. Consent to treatment is traced to law, while consent to research can be traced to ethical codes and administrative regulations. Informed consent has important moral and practical influence on the practice of medical treatment. This draws on the principle of autonomy, and the fact that a patient must be availed the opportunity to make their own independent decisions about the treatment offered to them. Similarly, in medical research, the participants are not coerced to participate. Medical treatment is therapeutic, unlike medical research, which is non-therapeutic, therefore, research participants are expected to participate voluntarily, since the research findings might not benefit them directly, but the patients in future. This is different from medical treatment, where the treatment benefits the patients directly. Nonetheless, in both cases, it is important to employ informed consent as a sign of respect for the individuals involved (Carmen and Joffe WEB). According to the Evans (WEB), the physician must avail all necessary information concerning the treatment procedure in order for this to be regarded as informed consent. This information will help the patient to make their judgement and settle for a right decision. In medical treatment, the information must include the risks the patient is exposed to by the specific medical procedure, as well as the outcome of the medical procedure and the other alternatives, which might be useful to the patient. In medical research, the participants must be informed about the purpose of the research and its usefulness to the discipline. This information leads to an informed decision by the patients and research participants. In addition, before pronouncing the informed consent, a physician must ensure that he or she understands the concerns of their patient, before starting to act on the patient’s decision. Physicians should not assume and make decisions for these patients, instead, a physician should take the necessary steps to ensure that those patients, who are poor communicators or those with speaking inabilities get to understand the consent information in order to participate wholly in decision-making concerning their treatment (Caroline 417). This applies to medical research too, where coercion is considered unethical. On the other hand, informed consent in medical research and experimentation is equally important for both the medical researcher and the subject, who might be the patients or other healthy individuals. In some cases, a patient might require an innovative kind of treatment, which goes beyond the normal diagnosis and prescription. Such innovative or experimental treatment calls for a research on the process. However, a physician must disclose this circumstance to the patient, despite the fact that this would result in anxiety and fear. The physician must disclose information about the proposed medical experimentation, the risks the experimentation poses to the patient, the benefits of the process, if any, as well as the alternatives of the process. This helps to avoid cases where patients might claim not to have consented to the procedure, if the outcomes of the procedure are negative. In addition, if a physician undertakes a blind study in this case, it breaches the patients’ right to informed consent. Nonetheless, procedures involving both experimentation and research in medical treatment must be made known to a patient so that he or she may practise their right to informed consent (Evans WEB). A patient is free to refuse any specific treatment, even if this was meant to restore their life. Although physicians are required to respect the patient’s decision, in this case, they ought to explain to the patient the consequences of the decision he or she has chosen. However, this must not be in a way to coerce them into changing their mind. In addition, the physician might suggest alternative treatments to the patient (Caroline 415). Since informed consent reflects ethics, then physicians have to show ethics by attempting to reduce the pain a patient is exposed to, or preventing the possible death of a patient (Caroline 417). Nonetheless, it is important that physicians write and document the informed consent of various patients, as this will serve as evidence in future, in case any controversies arise. Informed consent might face considerable challenges when dealing with the vulnerable individuals and those with special needs, forcing physicians to consider a number of factors in the process. These individuals might be incompetent patients, prisoners, or children, among others. During medical treatment or research, the participants involved must be in a position to make their decisions, with regard to informed consent, autonomously. Therefore, it is the role of the physician to assess the capability of their patients to make independent decisions. If they are not competent enough, the physician must consider involving other people close to the patient, as well as other stakeholders to help the patient in decision-making (Baylis 290). It is imperative that special needs of patients be recognized. These include difficulties in writing and reading, emotional problems, hearing and visual impairments, among others. In addition, physicians ought to assess an individual’s capacity to make good decisions. For instance, when dealing with children and young people, who are below 16 years, and incompetent in weighing benefits and risks of a phenomenon, it is important to involve their parents in their informed consent, as these cannot understand information by researchers, and make good decisions. However, if children are assessed and found competent, these can consent to research without their parents (Gelling 10). According to Gelling, prisoners are not supposed to participate in research, unless the research is about them or the circumstances affecting them (12). However, in medical treatment, these are entitled to informed consent. In the case of a research among prisoners, after the procedures for approval, informed consent will apply to them all, ensuring that none is coerced into participating in the research. On the other hand, incompetent patients, who are unresponsive due to sedation or other reasons, can only be involved in research under special circumstances. However, informed consent for such patients might vary in different countries. In the European Union countries, a written consent availed by a legal representative is used. In Scotland, it is in order for consent to be given by a different individual on behalf of the patient (Baylis 293). In all cases of medical treatment and research, there must be informed consent for the participants, as this promotes ethics in medicine. However, in the case of emergency, there might be delayed consent. In this case, a patient involved in a road accident or suffering from cardiac arrest, and is unconscious might not be in a position to consent. Therefore, given it is an emergency, where physicians seek to save the life of the patient, treatment will occur without consent. Consent will be sought after the patient gains consciousness, or after the closest relatives avail themselves. Law, as well as ethics allow this, in order to protect the victim from pain and possible death (Caroline 415). In conclusion, professionals in the health care profession are accountable for their practice. Therefore, they ought to perform with the best interests of the patients, research subjects, and other clients as a priority. In both medical treatment and medical research, physicians should consider the needs of their patients and research subject in order to have their informed consent. The physician must be knowledgeable in the various aspects of informed consent, and possess the skills and capability to avail important information to patients and research subject involved, as well as addressing the concerns that they raise. Additionally, the physician must have the ability to assess the research participants and patients’ capability to make informed decisions. He or she must also have a clear understanding of the law about informed consent, in order to deal with any challenges they face. Nonetheless, informed consent serves as a cornerstone of ethics in medicine and healthcare, since this allows autonomy to patients and research subjects. In turn, this strengthens the relationship between a physician and their patients, as well as a researcher and their research participants. Works Cited Baylis, Francoise. Health Care Ethics in Canada. New York: Cengage Learning, 2011. Carmen, Marcela and Joffe, Steven. Informed Consent for Medical Treatment and Research: A Review. The Oncologist. Viewed 3 April 2013 Caroline, Nancy. Nancy Caroline's Emergency Care in the Streets, Canadian Edition. London: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2009. Evans, Kenneth. Consent: A Guide for Canadian Physicians. The Canadian Medical Protective Association. n.d. Viewed 3 April 2013 Gelling, Leslie. Informed consent in health and social care research. Eds. Viewed 3 April 2013 Read More