The Role of Informed Consent in Healthcare Business Ethics

This essay examines the concept of informed consent within the context of business ethics in healthcare. It begins by defining informed consent as a process of obtaining patient permission before medical interventions, emphasizing its ethical and legal importance in respecting patient autonomy and protecting them from unwanted treatment. The essay outlines the guidelines and ethical requirements for obtaining informed consent, including the use of consent forms and the consideration of surrogate decision-making when patients are unable to provide consent. Furthermore, the essay explores the role of professionalism in healthcare, highlighting the importance of continuous learning, ethical behavior, and prioritizing patient well-being. The author argues that informed consent is crucial in healthcare due to its direct impact on patient lives and legal safeguards. The essay also touches upon emergency situations where informed consent may not be possible, and the potential legal repercussions for medical professionals. The author concludes by emphasizing the significance of ethical conduct in all professions, particularly in healthcare.

Business Ethics

Informed Consent is mainly referred to the process of getting consent or permission before conducting
any health intervention. A health care professional has to take permission of the patient before
providing any kind of treatment. There are proper guidelines to take informed consent. It is also known
as a process of communication in which patient has the authority to make a voluntary or informed
decision regarding accepting or rejecting medical care or treatment. In medical treatment, it is
important to obtain medical consent because it explains respect for the patients and the rights of the
patients to creating integrity. It also helps in providing freedom to the patient to take decisions
regarding their health. It also ensures the protection of the patients against wrong and unwanted
medical treatment (Mika, 2012). It also encourages the participation of the patient in medical planning.
Generally medical practitioner takes signature of the patient on some forms for getting informed
consent. It is an ethical requirement to take informed consent so that in future there will be no chances
of conflict. It also safeguards the interest of patient as well as the medical practitioner. Sometimes,
getting informed consent from the patient becomes impossible so in such cases consent of surrogate
decision making should be identified to express the patient’s wishes. Although in some emergency
situation, the concept of informed consent does not work and in that case medical professionals have to
act according to the best interest of the patient (Cribb & Gewirtz, 2015).
According to me, a professional is a person who involved in any kind of profession. A profession means a
career for someone who wants to be a part of the society, who possess some specific skills or knowledge
and becomes competent in any specific sector with the help of training. It’s a person who always
maintains their skills by professional development and promise to behave in an ethical way in order to
protect the interest of the public (Shaw, 2017). There is a very important role of the professional in our
daily lives like we need doctor when we are not well, we need teachers for education and tailors for
stitching our clothes. In nineteenth century, the definition of professional was little different and they
were defined on the basis of law, medicine and religion. But now, there is different kind of professionals
getting expertise in different areas. There are people who require certain standards of education from
automotive technicians to web designers so all that are known as professionals. Professionalism can be
getting by building some skills and expertise in a field of interest. It is important to continue learning and
stay up to date in interest area for maintaining the professionalism. It is the responsibility of the
professional to fulfill the requirement of the customers, to solve problems and to improve the lives of
the people by applying knowledge and skills (Gaglio, 2014).

These theories are relevant to my chosen profession because I have chosen medical practitioner as my
profession and there is a responsibility of the patient health. Every health practitioners has to follow
ethical standards that required in their profession (VARELIUS, 2010. According to me, informed consent
is the most important concept in healthcare because this profession is totally related to the lives of
people. Sometimes medical professionals face some legal issues for harming the patients and doing
something that is not good for the patient so informed consent always safeguard them from such
concerns. It is known that a professional has the responsibility to serve the public in the best possible
way and provide them quality services so it is important to get informed consent. People are not
generally able to accept the bad news and always prepare for the good one so in such cases they blame
medical practitioner for the bad results. There is an ethical requirement for them to get informed
consent of the patient before starting any treatment. In this modern era, everyone have the right to get
any kind of medical treatment. In some emergency cases, medical practitioners do not wait for the
informed consent and they take actions according to the situation. They try to choose the best possible
option for the patients. There are some incidents when medical practitioners are imprisoned for giving
wrong treatment to the patients. There can be circumstances in which medical practitioner tried to do
something good but wrong happened so in such cases, society’s viewpoint has been considered and
whole blame goes to medical practitioner. According to me, it is really important to be ethical in each
and every profession ("Welcome to Advances in Medical Ethics", 2014).
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References-
Cribb, A., & Gewirtz, S. (2015). Professionalism. Hoboken: Wiley.
Gaglio, G. (2014). Organizational sense: A notion for studying emerging organizational professionalism at
work. Professions And Professionalism, 4(1). doi: 10.7577/pp.222
Mika, A. (2012). The importance of codes of ethics. Hamburg: Bachelor + Master Pub.
Shaw, W. (2017). Business ethics. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
VARELIUS, J. (2010). ON TAYLOR'S JUSTIFICATION OF MEDICAL INFORMED CONSENT. Bioethics, 26(4),
207-214. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8519.2010.01842.x
Welcome to Advances in Medical Ethics. (2014). Advances In Medical Ethics. doi: 10.12715/ame.2014.1.1