Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

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Increasing attention to individual liberties in last decades, has led to considering respect to patients autonomy and involvement in making medical decisions as a critical ethical principle. In spite of a general emphasis on the Importance of the mentioned principle, there is a wide controversy about the logical limitations of respect to patients' wishes and preferences in medical decision making. While a significant number of theoreticians believe in necessity of considering rigid limitations for respect to patients' autonomy, others emphasize on respect to patients' absolute and unconditional right of self-determination. This article explains and analyzes each group's main arguments and finally suggests a functional and logical approach to the principle. This method helps avoidance of disadvantages of unconditional respect to patients' preferences while considering autonomy as an important ethical maxim.

Keywords: Limited autonomy, Absolut autonomy, Beneficence, Shared decision making

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