SHARED DECISION-MAKING AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY - for Treatment and Health

Abstract

How responsible are patients for adhering to treatment plans designed to optimize the treatment of their health-problem? This thesis analyses and explores a variety of ways in which this question can be understood, and how it links to the way in which health care decision-making is organized today. The analysis thus touches not only on issues of moral responsibility in health care ethics and health policy, but just as much on what reasons there are for patients to prefer certain organizational forms over others in the light of how these may impact their moral responsibility for the planning, execution and outcome of care. These issues also relate to health care professional ethics, as any responsibility ascribed to patients may still be more or less shared with health professionals. The content of this essay will be of interest for anyone who has ever reflected upon the sharing and division of responsibility within health care practice.