[Autonomy and consent to care: a socio-legal analysis]

Abstract

During the last decades, medical paternalism was rejected in favour of the patient's right to self-determination and, by extension, to its right to consent or refuse care offered to him. In the clinical setting, the obligation to inform user and to obtain its free and informed consent about such care is widely recognized, but rarely problematized. The aim of this paper is to analyze the construct of a consent to care and the different conceptualizations of autonomy that are part of this juridical vehicle. A socio-legal analysis was conducted through a narrative review of literature relative to nursing sciences, humanities, philosophy and bioethics, and legal sciences. Although obtaining consent is often approached as a formality, this process is situated at the intersection of an interface that is both relational and personal. This perspective requires recognition of the intersubjective process that takes place between the user and the clinician, and of the negotiating space in which they both are situated. It is finally proposed to develop further researches addressing this phenomenon, and the actor-network theories would represent a potential epistemological perspective to do so.