You are required to record and upload an oral presentation of a structured ethical argument, allowing demonstration analysis and debate of an ethical issue in healthcare. 1. Select one of the...

ETHICAL ARGUMENT
ETHICAL ARGUMENT
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THE CHOSEN ETHICAL CONCEPT:
Presentation title
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CONSENT
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Introduction
Both an ethical and legal notion, consent. However, the definitions of the term in the two contexts are not necessarily the same, therefore it is crucial to state clearly in any discussion whether the emphasis is on law or ethics.
Presentation title
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Consent is both an ethical and a legal concept. However, the ways in which the term is understood in the two domains is not always identical and in any particular discussion it is important to be clear about whether the focus is on law or ethics. This itself is an important conceptual point because it is not in general the role of the law to determine the content of ethical decisions but rather to establish the social framework within which individuals and communities can decide freely and without coercion on ethical matters that affect them. This is sometimes complicated because many laws undoubtedly arise out of community concerns of an ethical nature and reflect the personal attitudes of politicians and public officials.
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RELATION BETWEEN CONSENT AND HEALTHCARE
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Presentation title
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The doctor-patient relationship is impacted by a number of circumstances nowadays, making medical practise challenging. A healthy connection between a doctor and patient is built on mutual trust. Nowadays, patients frequently have either good or poor knowledge about the illness and their health. Due to the hype around "beauty," "form, size, and look of body parts," "quality and quantity of hair," etc. in the print and visual media, patients sometimes present dermatologists with excessive requests and unrealistic expectations. Before submitting a patient to any test, operation, or surgery, it is crucial to provide enough information, educate the patient about reality, and acquire informed permission.
The bond between the patient and the doctors:
Medical practice today is not simple because of various factors impinging on the doctor-patient relationship. Mutual trust forms the foundation for good relationship between doctor and patient. Today, patients tend to be well- or ill-informed about the disease and health. With the hype created in the print and visual media regarding ‘beauty’, ‘shape, size and appearance of body parts’, ‘quality and quantity of hair’, etc., patients tend to come to dermatologists with unreasonable demands and unrealistic expectations. Therefore, providing adequate information and educating the patient about realities and obtaining informed consent before subjecting a patient to any test/procedure/surgery is very essential. The concept of consent arises from the ethical principle of patient autonomy and basic human rights. Patients has all the freedom to decide what should or should not happen to his/her body and to gather information before undergoing a test/procedure/surgery. No one else has the right to coerce the patient to act in a particular way. Even a doctor can only act as a facilitator in patient's decision making. In simple terms, it can be defined as an instrument of mutual communication between doctor and patient with an expression of authorization/permission/choice by the latter for the doctor to act in a particular way. The idea that consent is not an end in itself but a means to responsible participation by patients in their own care and a means to a mutually rewarding relationship between clinician and patient is one that needs to be more widely promoted among health-care providers19 and acknowledged by champions of the individual self-determination movement (whose adversarial approach has been criticised by O’Neill for being counter-productive20). All too often clinicians consider consent primarily as protection against litigation or equate consent with the signing of a form. The legal and ethical nuances of consent and their applications in health care can be challenging and controversial. Determining competence is a key task. Consent is a central topic in bioethics. It is linked to many other key areas of concern in both ethics and health care, such as competence, autonomy, privacy and confidentiality, and the nature and extent of mutual responsibility within a community. In our society the rights of individuals to make decisions about issues relating to their personal welfare are attributed great importance. Indeed, it...