ABSTRACT
Just like patients must provide informed consent in order to participate in medical research, patients must give informed consent in order to receive certain medical treatment. Informed consent documents often fail to explain the possibility that the clinical trial may not be completed if not enough participants enroll or if a better treatment is introduced in the meantime. The primary purpose of advance directives is to preserve respect for a person's autonomy, but advance directives also sustain the ethical principle of beneficence by improving the quality of healthcare a person receives. While the causes, experience, and disclosure of medical mistakes might seem like an issue that is strongly suited to health communication, this is still a relatively new area of inquiry for communication scholars. Throughout this chapter, the authors have mentioned several opportunities for future research on ethical issues in health communication.
