Rosen Sunshine Teaches Informed Consent to Med Students
For each of the past five years, the lawyers of Rosen Sunshine LLP have participated in the University of Toronto's Undergraduate Medical Education Program, Mechanisms, Manifestations and Management of Diseases: Informed Consent.
Through this program, third year medical students attend a lecture or panel discussion on current Issues in Consent and Capacity, and then attend a seminar led by a lawyer and a physician or bioethicist. We serve as seminar leaders.The most recent iteration of this program was on January 18, 2016.
Relying on our knowledge of consent and capacity law and our health law experience, together with our physician or bioethicist colleagues, we lead discussions on such topics as:
the ethical and legal requirements for informed consent for treatment and for research;
the processes to assess patient capacity / competence as it applies to informed consent in the clinical setting;
the decision-making process and procedures when the patient is not able to consent, including the role of the substitute decision-maker;
the exceptions to consent
the protections available to vulnerable individuals in the health care system; and
the importance of relationships and trust in obtaining ongoing informed consent.
We also reviewed some of the key cases in this area of the law, including:Malette v. Shulman(1990), 72 O.R.(2d) 417 (Ont.C.A.)Reibl v. Hughes, [1980] 2 S.C.R. 880Cuthbertson v. Rasouli, [2013] 3 S.C.R. 341 As always, the medical students were engaged and interested in ensuring, as they embark upon their clerkships, that they have a foundational understanding of this important area of health law.
