Abstract
Every clinical decision involves some assessment of the patient’s competence — his capacity to make conscious and reasoned choices in matters relating to his own medical and health care. Competence is central to the moral validity of clinical decisions because competence is a necessary prerequisite to informed consent. Incompetence is a moral warrant for others to take actions they perceive to be in the patient’s best interests even against the patient’s expressed wishes. Precise assessments of competence are essential if patient autonomy is to be fully respected.
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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Pellegrino, E.D. (1991). Informal Judgments of Competence and Incompetence. In: Cutter, M.A.G., Shelp, E.E. (eds) Competency. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 39. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3614-3_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3614-3_2
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