2024 Volume 12 Pages 52-65
The working definition of “Medical Consent Rights” in this study is the rights to patient autonomy or to give informed consent to medical treatment. Medical Consent Rights are individual in nature and guaranteed by Article 13 of the Constitution of Japan. However, this fact is not widely known among clinicians ; hence, this study aims to conduct a survey of the awareness of Medical Consent Rights among 544 clinicians. An online questionnaire was designed to investigate the awareness of clinicians regarding the levels of consent by patients. The response rate was 18.8％. Less than 20％ of physicians are aware that there are three types of adult guardianship systems, and fewer than 50％ are aware that guardians do not have an overriding right to medical consent. Many clinicians still prioritize consent from the family over the consent of the patients. There is growing advocacy for legal guidelines regarding medical consent in cases of difficult decision-making, but granting such right to someone other than the affected undermines the personal medical consent right. Guardians and healthcare providers are expected to play a central role in supporting patient decision-making, fully leveraging the adult guardianship system.
