ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the legal doctrine of informed consent in three widely differing national cultures: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. It analyzes the theory and function of informed consent through the lens of death in each country, to understand why the amount of information physicians give their patients/consumers can affect the way health resource allocation takes place. The United Kingdom and Japan, by way of contrast, use death-defying technology much less frequently. Preoccupation with the manner of death and with the use of ever-improving medical technology to postpone death is not apparent. The law's doctrine of informed consent seeks to tame both death and arbitrary medical intervention to the will of the individual. The US public has always been culturally predisposed toward action in the face of threatened adversity, medical or otherwise. Illness is seen not as leading to inevitable death, but as a challenge to be overcome.
