Standardizing Autonomy Medical Communication, Liability, and the Doctrine of Informed Consent Liza Edwards-Levin
Abstract We analyze the reasoning behind several key legal decisions that influenced the development of medical informed consent law in the United States, beginning with (and continually referring back to) the landmark case of Canterbury v. Spence (1972). The paper discusses the complexity of at once upholding patients' autonomy and respecting physicians' professional expertise in the eyes of the law, through analyzing several widely-debated aspects of medical informed consent law (such as reasonable disclosure standards) that continue to be interpreted differently between and even within states.
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