Abstract:
"Informed consent" is recognised as the most important instrument that protects both the patient's autonomy and professional autonomy of the doctor. As there is no simple and well defined idea regarding what constitutes consent in medicine, one has to depend upon legal use of the term. However, the legal doctrine seems to be inadequate to account for the implicit meanings that medical practice attaches to the term. The present paper attempts to understand the unique nature of "informed consent" in the context of doctor-patient relationship.
