title: Disclosure documents and informed consent: the pros and cons.
abstract: This article critically examines the nature, scope, role and function as well as the pros and cons of disclosure documents as a means of procuring a patient's informed consent to proposed medical intervention. The conclusion reached is that, although the disadvantages of disclosure documents outnumber and outweigh their benefits, they should not be denied a role and function. Disclosure documents may be useful instruments for furnishing the basic information that a prudent patient would require to come to a decision whether to undergo or refuse the proposed medical intervention, but individual disclosure tailored to fit the actual circumstances of the particular patient can only be achieved by means of a disclosure conversation between doctor and patient. Hence, disclosure documents may serve as a supplement to but not as a substitute for a disclosure conversation.
authors.affiliation: University of Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: F F
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: van Oosten
mesh_terms: D004282:Documentation; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D010358:Patient Participation / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D014342:Truth Disclosure