O consentimento informado como dereito fundamental: inmunidade ou autodeterminación?

Abstract

[Resumo] A xurisprudencia constitucional española (STC 37/2011, de 28 de marzo, entre outras) ten establecido como fundamento do consentimento informado o dereito á integridade física e moral (art. 15 CE). O Tribunal Constitucional configura o consentimento informado como un deber de abstención do profesional sanitario, é dicir, como unha negación da competencia do profesional sanitario na terminoloxía de Hohfeld. Así pois, o consentimento informado queda conformado como un dereito negativo ou de defensa, polo que concibilo como liberdade xurídica ou facultade de autodeterminación positiva esixiría a revisión do seu fundamento constitucional. O presente artigo pretende precisamente revisar a natureza iusfundamental do consentimento informado a partir da obra de W. N. Hohfeld e Robert Alexy

[Abstract] The Spanish Constitutional Court (STC 37/2011, 28th March, among others) had established the right to physical and moral integrity as constitutional foundation for informed consent (article 15 CE). Informed consent had been shaped by the Spanish Constitutional Court as an inhibition duty for physicians, that is to say, the denial of physician’s competence in Hohfeld’s wording. Since informed consent is defined as a negative or defensive right, understanding it as a legal freedom or a right to self–determination would require a review of its constitutional foundations. This paper aims just to review the legal basis of informed consent by means of W. N. Hohfeld’s and Robert Alexy’s work