How Informed is Informed Refusal

Full Title:
How Informed is Informed Refusal?

Speakers:
Nathan Robert Howard (PhD), Assistant Professor, University of Toronto Scarborough
Eric Mathison (PhD), Assistant Professor, University of Toronto Scarborough

Abstract:
Valid consent in medical practice requires that the patient is relevantly informed. The degree and kind of information required by valid consent are both disputed, but it is widely agreed that this requirement is non-trivial. Since consent and refusal are opposed yet closely related concepts, it is tempting to think that valid refusal also requires meeting some non-trivial informational threshold. Indeed, it is now common to encounter the term ‘informed refusal’ alongside ‘informed consent’. We argue that valid refusal does not require meeting some informational threshold and explain the informational asymmetry between valid refusal and valid consent by appealing to an asymmetry between positive and negative rights.

Additional Details:
The event is free and is open to the general public.

The direct link to the seminar will be sent out to registered participants 2 hours before the event. The JCB Bioethics Seminars are now being live-streamed to our YouTube channel. If you don’t receive the link 2 hours before the event, please head over there and click on the live stream. Subscribe to our channel to receive notices of upcoming events.

Questions?
Please email Terry Yuen, jcb.ea@utoronto.ca.