ABSTRACT
In contemporary biomedical ethics, it is widely accepted that health-care providers have a strong prima facie moral duty to respect the autonomy of patients. The goal of this chapter is to demonstrate that this prima facie duty to respect autonomy generates a strong moral case for modifying the way in which cancer patients are informed about the nature of their radiation treatment within the field of Radiation Oncology. In particular, this chapter argues that the value of patients’ autonomy—particularly in view of the potential for error in this medical field—supports increasing patient education through direct consultations with a medical physicist throughout treatment. It concludes by explaining why the argument of this chapter has important implications for many medical fields beyond Radiation Oncology.
