(Correspondence) Conscientious Autonomy: What Patients Do vs. What Is Done to Them

CH Browner

The Hastings Center Report
The Hastings Center Report

Extract
I was intrigued by her argument that an “autonomous” medical decision can sometimes involve simple deference to medical authority, but I’m still unclear what she means when she says that such decisions can be construed as conscientiously autonomous if derived from a patient’s “self trust.” This seems precisely the paradox at the heart of debates over the existence of free will, or in Kukla’s rubric, autonomous choice: is there a “space” outside of social life constituting individual desires where choices derive from what one “really” wants?


Browner C. (Correspondence) Conscientious Autonomy: What Patients Do vs. What Is Done to Them. Hastings Cent Rep. 2005; September-October:4-5.