In this eye-opening look at the doctor-patient decision-making process, physician and law professor Jay Katz examines the time-honored belief in the virtue of silent care and patient compliance. Historically, the doctor-patient relationship has been based on a one-way trust -- despite recent judicial attempts to give patients a greater voice through the doctrine of informed consent. Katz criticizes doctors for encouraging patients to relinquish their autonomy, and demonstrates the detrimental effect their silence has on good patient care. Seeing a growing (...) need in this age of medical science and sophisticated technology for more honest and complete communication between physician and patients, he advocates a new, informed dialogue that respects the rights and needs of both sides. In a new foreword to this edition of The Silent World of Doctor and Patient , Alexander Morgan Capron outlines the changes in medical ethics practice that have occurred since the book was first published in 1984, paying particular attention to the hotly debated issues of physician-assisted suicide and informed consent in managed care. (shrink)

Few issues affecting the therapeutic professions are as much discussed and as little understood as informed consent. This book, written from the combined perspectives of a physician, a lawyer, and a social scientist, is the first reference work to provide a concise overview of informed consent with particular emphasis on the practical issues facing professionals. After introducing the ethical theories behind this principle, the authors describe the history and current status of the law, detailing all legal requirements for practitioners. They (...) consider the problems faced when these theories and laws are applied in a clinical setting, offering suggestions for simplifying the interaction between doctor and patient and for making it clinically meaningful. The stress throughout is on ways to improve practitioners' performance in meeting these ethical and legal mandates. The book will be valuable for all professionals working in areas where issues of informed consent are likely to arise, including medicine, mental health care, social work, dentistry and law. (shrink)