 Informed consent and patient decision making: Two decades of researchCaroline L. Kaufmann Social Science & Medicine, 1983, vol. 17, issue 21, 1657-1664 Abstract: Patient consent to medical treatment has been a subject of concern within the United States professional communities for over two decades. This paper traces the development of research literature on patient decision making and informed consent to medical treatment in three fields of research: medicine, law and the social sciences. A general model for stages in the development of scientific specialties is applied as a test for the development of informed consent as a specialty interest in each research field. Results indicate a relatively advanced stage of development within medicine and law. Research in the social science disciplines tend to lag behind in terms of cumulative number of publications. In addition, social science research which is potentially relevant to the ethical and policy issues of consent in medical treatment appears to lack a clear programmatic thrust, with little attention given to the policy implications of the work. In contrast, the medical and legal literatures indicate a direct concern with social policy and reflect attempts on the part of physicians and lawyers to influence the policy making process. Date: 1983 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:17:y:1983:i:21:p:1657-1664 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier |
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