Journal 4

Alex Marr

Journal 4

            For my fourth article, I read “Informed Consent” which was found in Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying.  This article focuses on the specific idea of informed consent during difficult end-of-life medical situations.  The article examines the players involved in the ultimate decision and how each person’s values must be respected.  The idea of informed consent is clearly defined in the article and the author mentions the exact things that need to be understood during by the informed consent.  The article is concluded by the history of informed consent, from when it first began to emerge to its role in modern medicine.

            Compared to my last article, this article took a very different stance regarding the decision of withdrawing life support.  The last article argued that the patient should not be able to make their own decision to withdraw life support since they would not be in a healthy stage to think properly.  On the other hand, this article brings up the idea of informed consent and argues that the every patient should have discussed the issue beforehand and should make his or her own decision.  The article also presents the history of life support decision, a new topic that the previous articles failed to do.

            This article brought up some new points in my research that will help me better compare two sides in my paper.  With this article I learned more about the idea of informed consent.  I learned that informed consent has two parts, one is the comprehension of the information disclosed and the other is voluntary decision and agreement to undergo a recommended medical procedure.  I learned informed consent should be between the patient and the physician in order to be legally recognized.  With informed consent, the decision to withdraw life support becomes easier as the patient has already understood what will happen.  Informed consent also makes the process less complicated as no legal issues can arise.  Ultimately, my view has changed and I have learned more about how informed consent can be the key to making end-of-life decisions easier.

            However, I am still left with some questions about how informed consent can be worked with.  How can we be sure every patient has informed consent with his or her physician?  It would be very difficult to arrange the time to meet and understand the procedures discussed.  This also leads me to another question, is there a simpler yet effective way to make life support decisions easier?  Through my future research, I will hope to find answers to these questions.