Competence to Consent.

White, Becky Cox. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1994.

The author, an associate professor of philosophy at California State University, provides a concise introduction to the key practical, philosophical, and moral issues involved in competence to consent. The goals of informed consent, respect for patient autonomy, and provision of beneficent care cannot be met without a competent patient. Thus determining a patient's competence is the critical first step to informed consent. Determining competence depends on defining it, yet surprisingly no widely accepted...