De la autonomía personal al consentimiento informado y las voluntades anticipadas I

Abstract

This paper addresses how individuals have recently achieved the idea of respect and dignity at the end of life, exercising their autonomy to take decisions about the way they want to live the passage from life to death, if not by taking control over the time of death, but regarding the conditions and care to be provided at that time. From the legal point of view we have developed the idea that treating a patient without his consent or despite his or her objections may constitute an unlawful conduct. The right of self-determination of the person is matched with the duty of the physician to inform the patient the truth about his condition, the courses of action from which to choose, its consequences, and also provide him or her with the means to adopt his or her decision. The right to information and informed consent has been developed as an autonomous right, complementary to the right to healthcare. The doctrine of informed consent led us to recognize the right we all have to make decisions about the end of our own life. To live with dignity means, among other things, in addition to the elimination of pain and suffering, that our autonomy is respected, this is our will on what medical care we receive and until when we want to receive it. The next step would be to find the most appropriate means for that will to be expressed, which is why we developed the so called advanced directions, which are currently a part of the Mexican legal system in various states, and which has led to the development of a new field of health care for terminal patients: palliative care, which are already provided also at the federal level in the General Health Law.