Military Medical Ethics – Scenario Collection

Obtaining valid consent to emergency treatment

Page ID: 91
Last updated: 22 Mar, 2018
Page ID: 91
Last updated: 22 Mar, 2018
Revision: 1
Comments: 0

In providing trauma care to a conscious civilian war wounded patient at a basic front line medical facility, you have no interpreter to facilitate your communication with the patient, who speaks no English and is frightened. The idea of valid, informed consent as an exchange of information between doctor and patient is of little or no help to you or the patient. Obtaining consent is a secondary consideration to doing whatever is necessary to stabilise the patient. Does this mean that ethical considerations are irrelevant here?

Source: BMA Medical Ethics Committee and Armed Forces Committee Ethical decision-making for doctors in the armed forces: a tool kit, London, BMA, p. 14.

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Page ID: 91
Last updated: 22 Mar, 2018
Revision: 1
Comments: 0
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