the reviewer doesn’t think that they’re capable of giving informed consent because of the climate of hostility to fat people. Now, that climate is poisonous to be sure, but should we therefore disbelieve someone who says “I consent to this experimental surgery”? That’s a pretty dangerous road, and while that rationale would make sense if this were a government-mandated program—there are definitely contexts where someone’s expressed consent isn’t really voluntary—I think we have to default more to autonomy than this, especially when a group already faces stereotypes invalidating their decisions.
I'm not a lawyer or a doctor, but I've taken care of hundreds of people who've undergone bariatric surgery during the course of my career. At my institution, they seem on the whole very self-aware and much better informed as to the risks and potential side effects of their procedure than the average person coming in for say, gall bladder surgery or a knee replacement. To say that they couldn't give consent to an experimental surgery because of societal attitudes toward being overweight almost implies that they can't give consent to any form of bariatric surgery, which isn't exactly risk-free.
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Date: 2011-12-20 05:56 pm (UTC)I'm not a lawyer or a doctor, but I've taken care of hundreds of people who've undergone bariatric surgery during the course of my career. At my institution, they seem on the whole very self-aware and much better informed as to the risks and potential side effects of their procedure than the average person coming in for say, gall bladder surgery or a knee replacement. To say that they couldn't give consent to an experimental surgery because of societal attitudes toward being overweight almost implies that they can't give consent to any form of bariatric surgery, which isn't exactly risk-free.