Jessica Thomas
Autonomy, Paternalism and Models There are many different approaches on how to treat patients, the first two models take charge as they direct the direction of the treatment, the third model is to just be seen as a source of information, while the last two models treat the both the mental and physical aspects of the patient. With so many different models, which one is ideal? Throughout this paper I will discuss these different models also known as autonomy, paternalism, informative, interpretative, and deliberative. An autonomic doctor-patient relationship is a contractual model between the patient and the doctor. This contract states that the patient has the sole deciding factor regarding his or her body and course of the…show more content… This information that the doctor provides is an excessive amount of information, including the patient's condition, the advantages and disadvantages of each treatment option, and how far the doctor's expertise lies. All this overflow of information is used so the patient can select his or her treatment and from the patient's choice the doctor provides the treatment. The patient enters with their limited knowledge and leave with understanding. The now educated patient decides using a combination of their own preexisting values and essentially the information as if they were as educated as a doctor. But what of the patient's preexisting values, what if the patient is indecisive of their wants especially with the additional load of information they just gathered. In order for the doctor-patient relationship to work the doctor needs to help their patient understand more then just their disease they need to help the patient understand their own…show more content… The direction that the doctor takes to piece together the values of the patient is to offer an outlook of the patient's present life and future. With the help of doctor the patient has a better understand of who he or she truly is. The patient in this model is both informed about their “mental” condition, as in their values, as well as their “physical” condition such as their disease. The problem with this model is that doctor aren't experts in interpreting values. Doctors could not only mistaken the patient's values but could influence the patient's decisions. The next and last model is the deliberative