Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Links

• For more information

Full Title: How Informed is Informed Refusal?

Abstract:

Valid consent in medical practice requires that the patient is relevantly informed. The degree and kind of information required by valid consent are both disputed, but it is widely agreed that this requirement is non-trivial. Since consent and refusal are opposed yet closely related concepts, it is tempting to think that valid refusal also requires meeting some non-trivial informational threshold. Indeed, it is now common to encounter the term ‘informed refusal’ alongside ‘informed consent’. We argue that valid refusal does not require meeting some informational threshold and explain the informational asymmetry between valid refusal and valid consent by appealing to an asymmetry between positive and negative rights.

Additional Details:

The event is free and is open to the general public.