Abstract
The perspectives of the dominant Western ethical theories, have dominated the concepts of autonomy and informed consent for many years. Recently this dominant understanding has been challenged by ethics of care which, although, also emanates from the West presents a more nuanced concept: relational autonomy, which is more faithful to our human experience. By paying particular attention to relational autonomy, particularity and Process approach to ethical deliberations in ethics of care, this paper seeks to construct a concept of informed consent from the perspective of ethics of care which is here called relational autonomy-in-informed consent (RAIC). Thus, providing a broader theoretical basis for informed consent beyond the usual theoretical perspectives that are particularly Western. Care ethics provides such a broader basis because it appeals to a global perspective that encompasses lessons from other cultures, and this will help to enrich the current ideas of bioethics principles of autonomy and informed consent. This objective will be achieved by exploring the ethics of care emphasis on relationships based on a universal experience of caring; and by contrasting its concept of autonomy as relational with the understanding of autonomy in the approaches of the dominant moral theories that reflect rational, individualistic, and rights-oriented autonomy of the American liberalism.
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Notes
Being an emerging moral theory, ethics of care is not yet considered as one of the dominant moral theories. That is why some authors such as Marian Verkerk prefer to call it “a moral perspective or orientation”.
There is constant need to cultivate the virtues appropriate to the practices of care and of moral evaluation of how the practices are being carried out. (Held 2006, 37).
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Osuji, P.I. Relational autonomy in informed consent (RAIC) as an ethics of care approach to the concept of informed consent. Med Health Care and Philos 21, 101–111 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-017-9789-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-017-9789-7