Abstract
In Western countries, respect for autonomy always acts as a guiding principle in medical practice and in tackling many thorny issues in Bioethics. For instance, physicians will routinely first inform their patients alone about their illness if they are competent, and only then ask whether they want to discuss with others, such as their families or other acquaintances, to make their own clinical decisions. If the patients do not want persons other than the medical professionals to participate in the discussion, the medical professionals are required to keep it confidential. Though the patients’ autonomy seems to be respected in these practices, such respect for autonomy has been challenged by many studies. In particular, the practices seem not to be suitable for non-Western countries, such as Taiwan, in which the patient’s family plays an important role in clinical decision making.
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Notes
- 1.
All my citations of Confucian classics are based on those by James Legge (1972) but adapted by me.
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Wong, H. (2015). Towards a Good Practice of Family-Oriented Consent: Reflections on Medical Practice in Taiwan. In: Fan, R. (eds) Family-Oriented Informed Consent. Philosophy and Medicine(), vol 121. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12120-8_16
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