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How Do Faden And Beauchamp Define Informed Consent

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In their article, “The Concept of Informed Consent,” Faden and Beauchamp give two varying definitions of informed consent, namely sense one and sense two. Sense one is defined as autonomous authorization, meaning that the patient or subject agrees and then gives authority to move forward with a proposal (Vaughn 191). The authors give four conditions that have to be met for informed consent to be recognized: the patient has to understand the information presented to her, there should be no manipulation or coercion, and she has to intentionally give her authorization (Vaughn 191). Faden and Beauchamp also note that the fourth condition, where the patient gives her authorization, is pivotal in this sense since it differentiates autonomous authorization …show more content…

According to sense two, legal or institutional effectiveness takes precedence. In other words, a subject’s consent is limited to the scope of the rules of the institution. Faden and Beauchamp illustrate that even if a patient autonomously gives her consent, it does not follow that effective consent is given if the requirements of the institution are not met. Consequently, the authors propose that sense one and sense two should both contribute in defining informed consent. Using Jay Katz’s argument, Faden and Beauchamp argue that sense two should satisfy sense one for there to be some type of balance between the two. Although the authors agree with Katz on his view of sense one and sense two, they reason that his model of shared decision making is nothing like informed consent. Shared decision making is when the doctor and the patient reach a conclusion that satisfies them both, but the authors do not agree with this notion because it violates the idea of informed consent by involving the doctor’s opinion. In sense one, the second condition states there should be no manipulation or coercion in true informed consent, and shared decision making does not recognize

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