Publication:
Can "presumed consent" justify the duty to treat infectious diseases? An analysis

dc.contributor.authorArda, Berna
dc.contributor.buuauthorCivaner, Murat
dc.contributor.departmentTıp Fakültesi
dc.contributor.departmentTıp Etiği Ana Bilim Dalı
dc.contributor.orcid0000-0001-5376-3499
dc.contributor.researcheridS-4188-2019
dc.contributor.scopusid24075622600
dc.date.accessioned2024-03-08T08:17:34Z
dc.date.available2024-03-08T08:17:34Z
dc.date.issued2008-03-06
dc.description.abstractBackground: AIDS, SARS, and the recent epidemics of the avian-flu have all served to remind us the debate over the limits of the moral duty to care. It is important to first consider the question of whether or not the "duty to treat" might be subject to contextual constraints. The purpose of this study was to investigate the opinions and beliefs held by both physicians and dentists regarding the occupational risks of infectious diseases, and to analyze the argument that the notion of "presumed consent" on the part of professionals may be grounds for supporting the duty to treat. Methods: For this cross-sectional survey, the study population was selected from among physicians and dentists in Ankara. All of the 373 participants were given a self-administered questionnaire. Results: In total, 79.6% of the participants said that they either had some degree of knowledge about the risks when they chose their profession or that they learned of the risks later during their education and training. Of the participants, 5.2% said that they would not have chosen this profession if they had been informed of the risks. It was found that 57% of the participants believed that there is a standard level of risk, and 52% of the participants stated that certain diseases would exceed the level of acceptable risk unless specific protective measures were implemented. Conclusion: If we use the presumed consent argument to establish the duty of the HCW to provide care, we are confronted with problems ranging over the difficulty of choosing a profession autonomously, the constant level of uncertainty present in the medical profession, the near-impossibility of being able to evaluate retrospectively whether every individual was informed, and the seemingly inescapable problem that this practice would legitimize, and perhaps even foster, discrimination against patients with certain diseases. Our findings suggest that another problem can be added to the list: one-fifth of the participants in this study either lacked adequate knowledge of the occupational risks when they chose the medical profession or were not sufficiently informed of these risks during their faculty education and training. Furthermore, in terms of the moral duty to provide care, it seems that most HCWs are more concerned about the availability of protective measures than about whether they had been informed of a particular risk beforehand. For all these reasons, the presumed consent argument is not persuasive enough, and cannot be used to justify the duty to provide care. It is therefore more useful to emphasize justifications other than presumed consent when defining the duty of HCWs to provide care, such as the social contract between society and the medical profession and the fact that HCWs have a greater ability to provide medical aid.
dc.identifier.citationCivaner, M. vd. (2008). "Can "presumed consent" justify the duty to treat infectious diseases? An analysis". BMC Infectious Diseases, 8.
dc.identifier.issn1471-2334
dc.identifier.pubmed18325112
dc.identifier.scopus2-s2.0-42449147476
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2334-8-29
dc.identifier.urihttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1471-2334-8-29
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/11452/40290
dc.identifier.volume8
dc.identifier.wos000254971900001
dc.indexed.scopusScopus
dc.indexed.wosSCIE
dc.indexed.wosSSCI
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherBMC
dc.relation.collaborationYurt içi
dc.relation.journalBMC Infectious Diseases
dc.relation.publicationcategoryMakale - Uluslararası Hakemli Dergi
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subjectHealth-care workers
dc.subjectAttitudes
dc.subjectKnowledge
dc.subjectPhysicians
dc.subjectHiv/aids
dc.subjectManagement
dc.subjectRefuse
dc.subjectInfectious diseases
dc.subject.emtreeAdult
dc.subject.emtreeArticle
dc.subject.emtreeDentist
dc.subject.emtreeFemale
dc.subject.emtreeHealth care delivery
dc.subject.emtreeHealth survey
dc.subject.emtreeHuman
dc.subject.emtreeInfection
dc.subject.emtreeInfection risk
dc.subject.emtreeInformed consent
dc.subject.emtreeMale
dc.subject.emtreeMedical education
dc.subject.emtreeMedical ethics
dc.subject.emtreeMedical profession
dc.subject.emtreeOccupational hazard
dc.subject.emtreeOccupational safety
dc.subject.emtreePhysician attitude
dc.subject.emtreeProtection
dc.subject.emtreeTurkey (republic)
dc.subject.emtreeClinical competence
dc.subject.emtreeCommunicable disease
dc.subject.emtreeCross-sectional study
dc.subject.emtreeDecision making
dc.subject.emtreeDentist
dc.subject.emtreeDisease transmission
dc.subject.emtreeEthics
dc.subject.emtreeHealth personnel attitude
dc.subject.emtreeMiddle aged
dc.subject.emtreeMorality
dc.subject.emtreeOccupational exposure
dc.subject.emtreePatient abandonment
dc.subject.emtreePhysician
dc.subject.emtreePsychological aspect
dc.subject.emtreeQuestionnaire
dc.subject.emtreeRisk factor
dc.subject.meshAdult
dc.subject.meshAttitude of health personnel
dc.subject.meshCareer choice
dc.subject.meshClinical competence
dc.subject.meshCommunicable diseases
dc.subject.meshCross-sectional studies
dc.subject.meshDentists
dc.subject.meshDisease transmission, patient-to-professional
dc.subject.meshFemale
dc.subject.meshHumans
dc.subject.meshMale
dc.subject.meshMiddle aged
dc.subject.meshMorals
dc.subject.meshOccupational exposure
dc.subject.meshPhysicians
dc.subject.meshPresumed consent
dc.subject.meshQuestionnaires
dc.subject.meshRefusal to treat
dc.subject.meshRisk factors
dc.subject.meshTurkey
dc.subject.scopusDental Students; Infection Control; Dentists
dc.subject.wosInfectious diseases
dc.titleCan "presumed consent" justify the duty to treat infectious diseases? An analysis
dc.typeArticle
dc.wos.quartileQ2
dspace.entity.typePublication
local.contributor.departmentTıp Fakültesi/Tıp Etiği Ana Bilim Dalı
local.indexed.atPubMed
local.indexed.atScopus

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