Is informed consent sole responsibility of the doctor?

The law as it stands today has placed responsibility of “informed consent” squarely & firmly on the doctors, lack of taking it amounting to negligence which is separate from duty of care. The doctors on the other hand find it difficult to stand up to the legal expectations as can be seen from recent judgments. Lack of established norms, illiteracy, different social, cultural & traditional practices makes the task of the doctors more difficult. The doctors have a long way to go starting with adopting the patient autonomy approach & doing away with the paternalistic pattern of managing patients. They will have to take help of family elders, community leaders & social workers in explaining the current trends in medical field before implementing the surgical methods & procedures failing which the issues may snowball in to major issues detrimental to the doctor-patient relationship. The State can help the doctors by doing its duty of educating its subjects as mentioned in the Directive Principles of the Constitution of India. A well informed patient is the ultimate solution to the vexatious litigations faced by the doctors. The role of the State cannot be undermined considering the political, infrastructural & financial resources at its disposal. Finally the doctors should not compromise the treatment based on patient autonomy approach & take a firm stand to deter the options that are detrimental to the health & wellbeing of the person & the society. The legislators, administrators & the judiciary should come together & take steps to set limits & standards of disclosure before the doctors’ start resorting to defensive practice which is not in good interest of the society at large.