
Patient and personal data processing: lack of informed consent affects self-determination right
Patient has the right to be adequately informed about consequences arising from medical treatments he receives. Then, standard consent form does not meet legal standards of informed consent. Violation of information obligation may entail health damage and right to self-determination right infringement. In such context, right to compensation is based on information deficit; the patient had no chance to consent to medical treatment with informed awareness about its consequences
Within the medical context, informed consent constitutes the legal base of numerous medical treatments. Lacking such information obligation any medical treatment is unlawful. The informed consent shall be:
- – Personal;
- – Specific and explicit;
- – Real and Actual;
- – Fully aware or “informed”. It means that patient’s consent shall be based on detailed information provided by the doctor.
Furthermore, jurisprudence has confirmed that informed consent shall take in consideration:
- – Detailed Information;
- – Information that give full awareness and knowledge about the nature, the scope of medical treatment;
- – Information about risks, consequences, and potential results of medical treatment;
- – Information provided in a comprehensive and clear language based on patient’s cultural level.
Violation of information obligation leads to:
– Health damage – In the event patient is able to prove that, with adequate information, he would have avoided to undergo medical treatment;
Self-determination right damage – In the event patient, due to information deficit, has suffered economic or non-economic damages that is different from health damage.