Informed consent in psychology is given to prioritize the principle of autonomy (?Ability to assign standards or rules to you, without pressure influence?) At the beginning of charity (?Obligation to act on behalf of others, to promote their legitimate interests?) And eliminate harm?).
It is one of the most important requirements in the exercise of professional practice. In addition, it should be a prerequisite for psychological evaluation and intervention.
- We may define informed consent in psychology as the free.
- Voluntary and conscious fulfillment of a patient.
- Which manifests itself in the full use of its faculties after receiving adequate information for an action to occur that affects their health (Luelmo.
- AD 2001).
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. ” – Eleanor Roosevelt-
Moral recognition of patients’ right to information and medical decisions is recent and supported by multiple judicial decisions. As Jay Katz noted: “Information and consent have no historical roots in medical practice, but legal ethics have forced them to accept them. . “
In 1931, the German Reich Ministry of Health issued a regulation on medical therapies and human experiments, so the right of the patient (or his legal substitute) to consent to participate in clinical trials was recognized. applied on German territory during World War II. Nor did it apply to its concentration and extermination camps, or to certain social groups. For example, wasn’t it applied to gypsies, Jews, homosexuals?
All this led the Nuremberg Court, once the conflict was over, to strive to establish basic principles in this area to safeguard the moral, ethical and legal aspects of human research.
The psychologist-patient relationship, from the time of Hippocrates to the early 1960s in the United States, was governed by the paternalistic principle of charity: seeking the patient’s property and consent was irrelevant because he could not provide anything.
Undoubtedly, the right to informed consent in psychology is what has contributed most to horizontalizing the relationship between the psychologist and the patient, and what most clearly contributed to the end of the paternalistic model, a right that in a sense dominates and predesses all other rights.
Characteristics of informed consent in psychology
“To be free today is to be informed. ” -George Ménager-
It should be noted that there are real and determinable benefits of informed consent in psychology. These benefits are:
“The contracting party to the first part shall be considered as the contracting party to the first part”. – Groucho Marx-
There are also opposing arguments used by those who oppose the patient’s proposal to play an important role in decision-making.
All of these arguments contain elements that deserve to be considered, but together they can be seen as the expression of a traditional point of view; from a logical point of view they appear to be rationalizations and justifications for a pre-established practice, rather than objective reasons for maintaining it.
Currently, it can be said that the psychologist has a duty to inform and educate the patient so that he can make a decision according to his own values, with the patient having the last word once informed and aware of the process. .