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Informed Consent

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Psychiatry and the Law

Abstract

This chapter presents a clinical vignette and discusses the US Supreme Court case of Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, 110 SCt 2841 (1990). This case involved Nancy Cruzan, a young woman who was profoundly injured and rendered incompetent after a motor vehicle accident. While the family’s initial petition focused on end-of-life decision-making, the Cruzan decision has had much broader implications for medical practice. This decision denotes a departure from paternalistic decision-making and affirmed the right of competent persons to make decisions for themselves about life-sustaining treatments, including the decision to refuse treatment. This chapter addresses ethical and practical considerations regarding end-of-life decision-making and the Cruzan decision. For physicians, a practical implication of this decision is the importance of proactively discussing patients’ wishes regarding treatment preferences while they are still capable of making such decisions. In light of Cruzan, treatment preferences expressed by an individual when competent are valued over family or caretaker preferences and quality-of-life concerns.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Law and Psychiatry Division, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 34 Park Street, New Haven, CT, 06519, USA

    Simha E. Ravven

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  1. Simha E. Ravven
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Correspondence to Simha E. Ravven .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Yale University School of Medicine, New haven, Connecticut, USA

    Tobias Wasser

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Ravven, S.E. (2017). Informed Consent. In: Wasser, T. (eds) Psychiatry and the Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63148-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63148-6_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-63147-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-63148-6

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