Autonomy of the patient’s will in informed consent in the face of the information society

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyze the process of informed consent as a legal act based on the patient’s private autonomy who, when faced with risk of death situations, may develop antinomic realities between the physician’s duty to act in the maintenance of the normatively recommended life and the autonomy of the patient’s will. In this sense and considering the point of view of the information society, such subject is discussed while adding the issue regarding the living will on the therapy which the patient desires to seek confronted with the question arising out of the legal duty to act of physicians, resulting of its code of medical ethics, the principle of the human person’s dignity and the criminal justice system, considering these five different situations: euthanasia, orthothanasia, dysthanasia, assisted suicide and mistanásia.