2021 Volume 31 Issue 1 Pages 55-63
In bioethics, respect for autonomy refers to associating with a patient's right to self-determination. The concept of autonomy does not consider the social status of a patient or their interpersonal relationships. For this reason, doctors may justify their own paternalism by unreasonably judging a patient to be not autonomous. This paper examines discussions on relational autonomy since 2000, giving particular attention to strong substantive accounts, weak substantive accounts, and self-answerability to resolve this matter and consider how respect for autonomy can be utilized to induce medical practitioners to support a patient's agency and right to choose. We argue that self-answerability, which serves as a standard for the autonomy of a patient's answerability, is the best form of relational autonomy for achieving applicable and desirable autonomy for medicine and care. Indeed, this is because it does not classify patients as autonomous or not autonomous, but rather it makes it possible to regard patients as diverse by reconsidering autonomy according to degree. It is also possible for medical practitioners to avoid forming contemptuous attitudes toward non-autonomous patients and develop generous and tenacious attitudes toward all patients.
