I have given over 50,000 injections and treated many patients as a dentist. During my career, the principle of consent has been one of the most striking and enduring concepts when treating patients.
For the past 40 years the guiding ideals that all healthcare professionals work under are the four pillars of biomedical ethics. These are beneficence (do good), non-maleficence (do no harm), autonomy (give patients space to choose freely, where they are able) and justice (ensuring fairness).
The proposed NI Public Health Bill policy lacks adherence to the four pillars of biomedical ethics and places health professionals in an intolerable position.
In everyday practice, the ethics code means consenting people during their entire appointment. For example, getting agreement that it is OK to perform a dental exam, affirming that it is acceptable to take an X-ray, and ensuring that the treatment is as understandable as possible so that patients can make an informed decision on whether or not to go forward with treatment, through to obtaining assent that the patient is ready to proceed.
When a person is consented adequately there’s greater satisfaction and engagement with the process of realising health. When someone has anything done to their body that they did not consent to, the consequences can have severe negative physical manifestations, and feelings of violation that may last a lifetime.
Consider trying to do an examination on an unwilling and resisting patient. Would this mean that patients would be strapped down? I cannot imagine having to force an injection on someone or have an external public body apply pressure on me to perform a procedure.
When someone has anything done to their body that they did not consent to, the consequences can have severe negative physical manifestations, and feelings of violation that may last a lifetime
— Lucy Stock
Furthermore, to try to say that, “Medical treatment does not include vaccination and other prophylactic treatment,” is contrary to the definition by the European Medicines Agency which states that a vaccine is: “A substance or combination of substances that is intended to treat, prevent or diagnose a disease, or to restore, correct or modify physiological functions by exerting a pharmacological, immunological or metabolic action.”
Medical and dental research is not black and white. Research is continually evolving and in terms of side effects - which is really a polite term for effects - they can take many years to become apparent.
So, caution when considering implementing any treatment is sensible especially when in a heightened atmosphere of a future epidemic.
