Clarke D. Newman, OD, FAAO, FBCLA, FSLS, FNAP

Controlling everything we do as doctors of optometry and everything our colleagues in allopathic and osteopathic medicine do is a legal and ethical framework called the Doctrine of Informed Consent. To speak to a patient or a parent about this doctrine without sounding like a lawyer, we must first understand the underlying history, ethical theory and case law. Prior to the 1950s, doctors and patients adhered to a paternalism that relied on the doctor to make decisions for the patient based on the doctor’s superior knowledge and authority and an abdication of agency on the part of the patient in service to that authority. Read More