BRIEF CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT THE INFORMED CONSENT OF THE PATIENT

One of the greatest legislative novelties inserted by the Civil Code, which has entered into force on the 1st of October 2011, is represented by the regulation of the personality rights. Among these rights, the right to life and health, the right to physical and psychical integrity and the right to self-provision are emphasized by their special importance. Inevitably, these rights are correlated with the possibility of performing certain medical interventions upon the human body, invasive or non-invasive, performed for therapeutic purposes or scientific research. As a guarantee of the compliance with the above mentioned rights, the legislator has stated the need to have the prior consent of the patient for each intervention to which he shall be subjected. In the same time, it has been established the obligation for the medic to inform the patient regarding the essential aspects of the procedure to which the latter shall be subjected to, including regarding the risks. Therefore, the patient’s consent shall not only be prior, but also informed. The obligation to inform the patient is stated both as a general one, correlated with the right to information of every patient, as well as a special obligation, for medical interventions requiring a special regulation, such as the case of blood donations or organs, tissues or human cells harvesting for transplantation. Being established as an obligation for the medic, the non-compliance with the obligation to inform may be sanctioned with the civil liability for malpractice.