The right to informed consent is a fundamental healthcare right grounded, like the right of refusal, in the right of every human being to autonomy and authority over their own body. When a doctor or other healthcare provider recommends an intervention or treatment, they have a legal obligation to inform the patient of the risks and benefits of the full range of options available to that patient.
The patient is entitled to evidence-based, individualized recommendations, and to be supported in the exercise of genuine consent – that is, the choice to accept the recommendation or decline it—on the basis of the patient’s personal needs and values. The right to informed consent is a right to evidence-based care—or the right to be informed that the recommendations under discussion have no basis in evidence.
The right to informed consent recognizes that 10 rational pregnant people, with similar clinical charts, might make 10 different decisions about what they need for a healthy birth. Decision-making in healthcare, and in childbirth in particular, is a personal process that incorporates the individual’s history, cultural and spiritual values, and family values, to name a few.
One-size-fits-all, protocol-dictated, assembly line maternity care violates the right to informed consent and fails to promote health and well-being. Genuine informed consent recognizes the patient as an intelligent, autonomous human being capable of making decisions about their body. Informed consent rests upon an assumption that, despite the esoteric nature of medical knowledge, ordinary people can assess their medical alternatives and make a decision about them—including a decision not to follow their doctors’ advice.
