- Title
- Uninformed medical intervention as a violation of the rights to dignity, bodily integrity and privacy in South Africa
- Creator
- Silas, Patience Oluchi
- Subject
- Medical personnel and patient Human rights
- Date
- 2019
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- LAW
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/16862
- Identifier
- vital:40780
- Description
- South African society has changed from one that favoured medical paternalism to one that demands respect for patient autonomy. Some legislative provisions currently require respect for human rights in the sphere of medical treatment. These laws vest patients with the right to informed consent thereby conferring them with the rights to decide what should be done to their bodies in terms of healthcare. Irrespective of the laws emphasising the need to respect, protect and promote the doctrine of informed consent in South Africa, so many health practitioners still engage in uninformed healthcare practices. This study, therefore, examines the doctrine of informed consent in relation to the fundamental rights to bodily integrity, dignity and privacy to ascertain the legal implications of the failure to obtain informed consent for healthcare services. It is desktop research undertaken from the constitutional, legislative, common law and ethical perspective of informed consent. Its findings are based on both primary and secondary legal sources. It established that informed consent is a fundamental right in South Africa; rendering any healthcare service without obtaining the informed consent of a patient does not only breach the fundamental and ethical principle of autonomy, but also grossly violates their fundamental rights to dignity, bodily integrity and privacy. The study clears the age-long differing views as to whether failure to obtain informed consent before medical interventions amounts to an assault, negligence or the violation of some specific fundamental rights. It reveals that the major reason why health practitioners administer uninformed medical treatment in contemporary health practice is insufficient awareness of the legal requirements of the doctrine of informed consent. This is coupled with the fact that they believe the doctrine is alien to the African psyche and the process of obtaining informed consent is time-consuming. It thus recommends that health practitioners should have a positive attitude towards the doctrine because having been entrenched in the Constitution, codified in various national laws and upheld by Courts, every legal stipulation regarding the doctrine is binding on them. It also suggests that health practitioners should be abreast with the laws governing informed consent and strictly comply with their substantive and procedural stipulations. This would protect the fundamental rights of the patient and avert legal actions.
- Format
- 159 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Law
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
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UFH Nelson R Mandela School of Law
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | Silas Oluchi Final Dissertation.pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |