58. Do we need to rethink competence to consent? With Danielle Bromwich

In medical ethics, competence (sometimes called decision-making capacity) refers to a person’s ability to make informed choices about their own healthcare. It is a central concept because respect for patient autonomy depends on the patient being able to understand, evaluate, and communicate decisions about treatment. Danielle Bromwich is a medical ethicist at the University of Leeds. In a paper co-written with Joseph Millum from the University of St Andrews, she argues that the way medical ethics has treated competence has been mistaken, that ethicists have been conflating two distinct concepts, and that this confusion has the potential to lead to bad decisions being made about patient care. We also explore the implications her account has for other domains in which we give and refuse consent, such as sexual relations.

The paper we discuss in this episode is available here.

Danielle and Joseph have also written a book about consent, which is available here. There will be a further episode of Ethics Untangled featuring Danielle soon in which we talk about the book and the ethics of consent more broadly.

Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.

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