Abstract

KIE: One theme of London University lawyer Ian Kennedy's 1980 Reith Lectures on medical ethics was the need to change the emphasis in physician patient relations from paternalism on the part of doctors to self determination on the part of patients. Bamford, a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology, demonstrates how reality can fall short of the ideal by presenting a case where decisions made by a patient after thorough consultation and counseling with her doctors were consistently inappropriate to her needs.