Il consenso informato

Abstract

For many doctors the process of obtaining informed consent for a treatment from a patient begins and ends with the signature of the patient on the consent form. Indeed this is not so as this process is deeper than that and all specialists need to understand the true meaning of this form to ensure that implementation of the process of informed consent is mutually beneficent to both patient and doctor. Ethicists and the medicolegal system agree that patients have rights to information prior to an elective medical procedure. In Italy there are many court cases emphasize the importance of informed consent. This paper presents a brief legal history of the doctrine along with a discussion of contemporary standards of disclosure and the emerging right of the patient to understand informed consent disclosures. The aim is to analyse the criteria used to define adequate informed consent and the contribution to define “reasonable” medical informed consent, including elements as disclosure of information, competency, understanding, voluntariness, and decision-making.