Is consent to psychological interventions less important than consent to bodily interventions?

It is standardly accepted that medical interventions can be permissibly administered to a patient who has decision-making capacity only when she has given her valid consent to the intervention. However, this requirement for valid medical consent is much less frequently discussed in relation to psych...

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Bibliografski detalji
Glavni autori: Forsberg, L, Douglas, T, Savulescu, J
Format: Journal article
Jezik:English
Izdano: Oxford University Press 2025
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author Forsberg, L
Douglas, T
Savulescu, J
author_facet Forsberg, L
Douglas, T
Savulescu, J
author_sort Forsberg, L
collection OXFORD
description It is standardly accepted that medical interventions can be permissibly administered to a patient who has decision-making capacity only when she has given her valid consent to the intervention. However, this requirement for valid medical consent is much less frequently discussed in relation to psychological interventions (‘PIs’) than it is in relation to bodily interventions (‘BIs’). Moreover, legal and professional consent requirements in respect of PIs are laxer than the analogous requirements in respect of BIs. One possible justification for these differences appeals to the Differential Importance View—the view that it is presumptively morally less important to obtain explicitly given valid consent for PIs than for BIs. In this article we argue against the Differential Importance View by considering and rejecting three possible justifications for it. These invoke differences between PIs and BIs with respect to implicit consent, risk, and wrongfulness.
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spelling oxford-uuid:16494080-701b-4abb-aafc-c8450f8d2dec2025-02-25T10:51:20ZIs consent to psychological interventions less important than consent to bodily interventions?Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:16494080-701b-4abb-aafc-c8450f8d2decEnglishSymplectic ElementsOxford University Press2025Forsberg, LDouglas, TSavulescu, JIt is standardly accepted that medical interventions can be permissibly administered to a patient who has decision-making capacity only when she has given her valid consent to the intervention. However, this requirement for valid medical consent is much less frequently discussed in relation to psychological interventions (‘PIs’) than it is in relation to bodily interventions (‘BIs’). Moreover, legal and professional consent requirements in respect of PIs are laxer than the analogous requirements in respect of BIs. One possible justification for these differences appeals to the Differential Importance View—the view that it is presumptively morally less important to obtain explicitly given valid consent for PIs than for BIs. In this article we argue against the Differential Importance View by considering and rejecting three possible justifications for it. These invoke differences between PIs and BIs with respect to implicit consent, risk, and wrongfulness.
spellingShingle Forsberg, L
Douglas, T
Savulescu, J
Is consent to psychological interventions less important than consent to bodily interventions?
title Is consent to psychological interventions less important than consent to bodily interventions?
title_full Is consent to psychological interventions less important than consent to bodily interventions?
title_fullStr Is consent to psychological interventions less important than consent to bodily interventions?
title_full_unstemmed Is consent to psychological interventions less important than consent to bodily interventions?
title_short Is consent to psychological interventions less important than consent to bodily interventions?
title_sort is consent to psychological interventions less important than consent to bodily interventions
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