"I wouldn’t have consented if I’d known that could happen": Consenting without Understanding
Timothy Walker (Queen's University, Belfast)

May 15, 2014, 1:30pm - 3:00pm
St Cross College, Oxford University

Oxford
United Kingdom

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Speaker: Dr Tom Walker, Director Centre for Ethics, School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy, Queen’s University Belfast

Venue: St Cross Room, St Cross College, Oxford

Title: "I wouldn’t have consented if I’d known that could happen": Consenting without Understanding

 

Time and date:  Week 3 - Thursday 15 May, 5.30 – 7pm

Abstract: There are two features of consenting to medical treatment that have been little explored in the extensive literature on this topic. The first is that the requirement to obtain consent is conditional in the following sense – we only need to obtain consent for those things that are both wrong if done without consent, and that we want or have reason to do. The second is that whilst many patients in their interactions with doctors are initially uninformed, this does not always prevent them from choosing to have, or not to have, possible treatments. In this paper I explore the implications of these two features for the idea that doctors ought to provide information to patients about the treatments they propose. I will argue that these features create a serious problem for the widely held idea that it would be wrong, because it would fail to respect his autonomy, to give a competent patient medical treatment without his valid consent (where this refers to a voluntary and informed agreement to have the treatment). As such the requirement to respect autonomy will not give any reason for doctors to provide information in these cases; in fact on at least some accounts of autonomy the obligation to respect autonomy would give them a reason not to provide that information. The paper then goes on to consider some ways in which the obligation to provide information about potential treatments could be supported.


Bio: My research is concentrated in three main areas within ethics. The first is the extent to which it is appropriate to hold people responsible for the consequences of their behaviour, particularly where those consequences arise over relatively long periods of time or are the result of previous behaviour which substantially reduces the person’s autonomy. My second main area of research concerns  the permissibility of interventions to change people’s behaviour in order either to benefit them or to protect their future autonomy. In looking at this question my main focus in on policies designed to promote the health of the population by changing behaviours such as smoking, drinking and overeating. The third strand of my research concentrates on questions of fairness in resource allocation – concentrating on medical and social care resources.

Webpage: http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofPoliticsInternationalStudiesandPhilosophy/Staff/WalkerT/

Booking details:  This public seminar is open to all, but pre-booking is essential.  Email[email protected]  to reserve a place.

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