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Informed Consent

Abstract:

The Cartwright Inquiry into clinical research brought doctors in New Zealand face-to-face with the concept of informed consent and patients' rights. This stuck at the root of their long tradition of clinical freedom. As Judge Cartwright said: The doctor is no longer autonomous. As a concept, clinical freedom has been proved worthless at National Women's Hospital when patients' safety or the rigorous testing of a new treatment protocol were at stake. The NZ Health Council Working Party came up with protocols which were ridiculed by many doctors. Rather than acknowledge their determination to maintain the clinical freedom on which their doctor-patient relationship is based, they argued that patients in hospital are too dependent on doctors to make their own decisions; the time required to meet ethical requirements would make doctors' lives very difficult and add to the time they took to do their jobs, causing waiting lists to grow.

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Cartwright Inquiry, informed consent, medical model, patients' rights