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Article: Paternalism
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Public Health
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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PATERNALISM
Consideration of paternalism involves the interactions of two principles of medical ethics
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beneficence and respect for autonomy. Historically, beneficence has long retained primacy in medical ethics, and physicians have been able to rely almost exclusively on their own judgement about their patients' needs for treatment, information, and consultation. However, medicine has increasingly been confronted
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especially since around 1970
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with a different kind of need, namely the patient's asserted need to make an independent judgment.
The central problem in these discussions is whether the principle of respect for autonomy, which gives primary decision-making ...