We had some things in common, but my abiding thought was that although avoiding
medical paternalism is the right thing to do, it can be a painful experience.
There may be a "right answer" according to society, but subjective knowledge developed in the public home place gives one the power to refute
medical paternalism. Subjective knowledge becomes an act of resistance.
Having not trained in an era steeped in
medical paternalism, younger physicians are more likely to place the patient on the pedestal rather than themselves.
"To do no harm"--to act with "beneficence" and in accord with "the fundamental paradigm of
medical paternalism" (p.
Keywords: Confidentiality, Informed consent,
Medical paternalism, Patient rights.
For example,
medical paternalism, the base of the Hippocratic Oath, was replaced by the patients' rights, invoking the moral and legal autonomy of them, forcing the physician to consider as prima facie duties, in addition to the autonomy duty, the beneficence and non-maleficence ones.
He noted that the doctor had failed to inform his patient of the risks of the operation he was to undertake and said: "
Medical paternalism no longer rules in modern law, and a patient has a prima facie right to be informed by a surgeon of a small but well-established risk of serious injury as a result of the surgery."
Now many of them strongly argue that
medical paternalism is justified when people doctors deem to have a poor quality of life dare to consider their own lives worth living and seek life-saving medical treatment, food, and fluids.
(70) What are the characteristics of
medical paternalism and why did it wane?
This shift, towards a greater focus on patients' rights and the questioning of medical authority, went hand in hand with greater emphasis on patient autonomy and resistance to
medical paternalism.
Jane Wilson's chapter focuses on
medical paternalism and attempts to come to grips with a non-reductive justification of paternalism.