MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL AND PATIENT

238 PART 2: MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL AND PATIENT "She’s really a Cases for Evaluation the Chicago-area The patient, id Doe, received a k CASE I Chicago Medica Informed Consent or Not? Gift of Hope Elmhurst and A 64-year-old woman with multiple sclerosis (MS) is the kidney do hospitalized. The team feels she may need to be placed on a feeding tube soon to assure adequate the patient, D nourishment. They ask the patient about this in the University morning and she agrees. However, in the evening responded i (before the tube has been placed), the patient be- guidelines, comes disoriented and seems confused about her we will pro decision to have the feeding tube placed. She tells as is consist the team she doesn’t want it in. They revisit the ques- Gift of tion in the morning, when the patient is again lucid. quests for Unable to recall her state of mind from the previous The wo evening, the patient again agrees to the procedure.* young ma tal officia Explain your answers: Has the woman given her in- ally high formed consent? Should she be judged competent? CDC gu Should her final agreement to the procedure be suffi- active s cient to establish informed consent, or should her ear- patient lier wafflict confusion also be taken into account? The on No *"Informed Consent," Ethics in Medicine (University of "T Washington School of Medicine), http://depts.washington pital .edu/bioethx/topics/consent.html (17 November 2007). know to t peo mix