INFORMED CONSENT Beyond The Person and The Body

Individual power of choice has overcome the old boundaries which governed only a patient’s existence or body and now takes into account surrogate consent, i.e. that expressed by a third party, as well as the management of cells, tissues and organs that are no longer part of the person, parts that were previously considered surgical waste and that today have become priceless objects of research. Just over a decade ago doctors made the decisions and patients did what they were told. Doctors were not used to asking patients what their wishes and priorities were; they often withheld vital information from them and patients were treated like children: “too fragile and clueless to face the truth, let alone make decisions.” Patients were sometimes attached to machines, forced to take drugs, and subjected to operations without their opinion being sought. The principle of consent constitutes a natural corollary of the broader principle of personal freedom and is substantiated by the exclusivity of one’s body and mind in that the person cannot be subjected to coercion or violation of his or her bodily sphere nor moral freedom; any power or duty of the doctor over the patient finds its sole and exclusive source in the consent of the patient themselves, representing the focal point of all legal authorisation of medical activity.