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PROFESSIONAL ISSUESShould informed consent include a definition of life?In the Courts. By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. Dec. 9, 2002. A New Jersey jury next year could be asked to essentially answer a question that elicits heated debate in many circles: When does life begin? The answer to the question that scholars and religious leaders have grappled with for years without coming to consensus could have an impact on what a doctor needs to tell a patient about an abortion procedure to obtain the patient's informed consent. While about 30 states have laws that outline what constitutes informed consent for abortion procedures, New Jersey doesn't. And a physician there now faces a lawsuit from a patient who says he didn't do enough to inform her before the procedure. Some say the outcome of the case could have effects beyond New Jersey. On April 6, 1996, Rosa Acuna went to her physician complaining of abdominal pain. Obstetrician-gynecologist Sheldon C. Turkish, MD, told the 29-year-old mother of two that she was pregnant. A sonogram showed that the pregnancy was in the first trimester. Court records differ on whether the pregnancy was four or seven weeks along. Acuna discussed the termination of the pregnancy with Dr. Turkish. Two days later, she returned and had the procedure. The discussion that took place during the first visit is now the center of the lawsuit. Several years after the procedure, Acuna sued Dr. Turkish saying he didn't get informed consent because he "failed to inform her that [the fetus], although a person unborn, was a complete, separate, unique and irreplaceable human being." Acuna says that she knew she was pregnant, but in a deposition she said that she asked Dr. Turkish "if there was a baby already in me." She said he told her "it's only blood." [...] Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2002 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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