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- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!pitt!speedy.cs.pitt.edu!km
- From: km@speedy.cs.pitt.edu (Ken Mitchum)
- Newsgroups: sci.med
- Subject: Re: Questions for MDs
- Message-ID: <15860@pitt.UUCP>
- Date: 28 Jul 92 12:45:08 GMT
- References: <1992Jul26.204051.15161@newstand.syr.edu> <15524@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> <55267@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
- Sender: news@cs.pitt.edu
- Reply-To: km@cs.pitt.edu (Ken Mitchum)
- Organization: Computer Science Dept., University of Pittsburgh
- Lines: 29
-
- In article <55267@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:
- >This is an excellent example of the problem with the practice of medicine.
- >If the medical crew makes the decision, they should be stuck with the
- >consequences. On the other hand, if the patient is given the full
- >information, and makes an informed decision, only wilful fraud or
- >clear incompetence, as determined by a review board which is composed
- >of good physicians and pathologists who hate incompetence, but respect
- >honest differences, should be actionable.
-
- This would be okay if it were followed. But even if the patient makes
- the decision, if something bad happens it still is the physician's
- fault. Remember the woman who had a tubal ligation that I posted about
- before? She was fully informed of the exact percentage of the cases
- in which the tubes reconnect on their own, making pregnancy possible.
- She still sued, claiming that "They told me the percentage but they
- didn't tell me it would be me." She got her money.
-
- We have been around on this too many times. Informed consent is
- meaningless in most cases, and impossible in all. The patient has
- never been there before; the doctor has. It is the doctor's
- responsibility to help the patient decide.
-
- -km
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