Abstract
Informed consent literatures have prospered in the past decades. However, they have centred mainly on disclosure of risks of one particular treatment/procedure proposed by a doctor. There is a need to explore the topic of the duty to inform patients of alternatives. In the common law world, there are significant differences between jurisdictions with regard to whether a doctor has a legal duty to inform about alternatives, and what kinds of alternatives fall within a doctor’s duty to inform. This book covers the law of a wide range of jurisdictions, including England, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and China. The first few chapters (Chaps. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8) examine the collective wisdom and experience of a few common law jurisdictions. Chapters 9 and 10 examine the New Zealand context and the Chinese context. To highlight the uniqueness of the New Zealand context, in Chap. 9 distinctions are drawn between New Zealand and the three common law jurisdictions with which it is most commonly compared (England, Canada and Australia).
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Zhao, X. (2012). Introduction. In: The Duty of Medical Practitioners and CAM/TCM Practitioners to Inform Competent Adult Patients about Alternatives. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31647-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31647-0_1
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-31646-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-31647-0
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