| Title |
The impossibility of reliably determining the authenticity of desires: implications for informed consent
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, June 2017
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s11019-017-9783-0 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Jesper Ahlin |
| Abstract |
It is sometimes argued that autonomous decision-making requires that the decision-maker's desires are authentic, i.e., "genuine," "truly her own," "not out of character," or similar. In this article, it is argued that a method to reliably determine the authenticity (or inauthenticity) of a desire cannot be developed. A taxonomy of characteristics displayed by different theories of authenticity is introduced and applied to evaluate such theories categorically, in contrast to the prior approach of treating them individually. The conclusion is drawn that, in practice, the authenticity of desires cannot be reliably determined. It is suggested that authenticity should therefore not be employed in informed consent practices in healthcare. |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 21 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 21 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 5 | 24% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 4 | 19% |
| Professor | 1 | 5% |
| Lecturer | 1 | 5% |
| Student > Bachelor | 1 | 5% |
| Other | 1 | 5% |
| Unknown | 8 | 38% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Philosophy | 4 | 19% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 3 | 14% |
| Psychology | 2 | 10% |
| Arts and Humanities | 1 | 5% |
| Social Sciences | 1 | 5% |
| Other | 3 | 14% |
| Unknown | 7 | 33% |