Informed Consent to Abortion Building Bridges of Dialogue in the Medical Encounter

by Milo, Caterina

• ISBN13: 9780197687550
• ISBN10: 0197687555
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780197687574
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2025-09-17
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Traditionally the abortion debate has focused on the status of the foetus and the decisions available to pregnant women in isolation. In Informed Consent to Abortion, Caterina Milo argues that this politically polarised debate has neglected the crucial component of the decision-making process: Informed Consent (IC). Whereas in other aspects of healthcare law the IC process has received increasing attention and been the subject of much litigation, the abortion law has fallen behind. IC has been often neglected and the process of decision-making has been undermined.
Caterina Milo provides a legal and ethical framework of abortion law and professional guidelines by critically analysing the implications of the 2015 UK Supreme Court judgment in Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board on Informed Consent. She discusses the key potentials and challenges within three major areas of domestic law in England and Wales: the law on abortion, the tort law of negligence, and relevant professional guidelines on consent. Milo argues that these three areas have neglected the decision-making process and a change in approach is needed. Throughout the book, Milo sheds light on problems that emerge from the intersection between reproductive law and human rights law, discussing each in relation to the health-related ethical and policy debates in the domestic, European and US context. In turn, she addresses difficult questions posed by failure to comply with information disclosure and understanding standards in the abortion context. Milo critically assesses the role of clinicians in the abortion context, challenging the current legal and policy approach.

Informed Consent to Abortion contributes not only to philosophical and theoretical issues, but also to practical and applied ethics in medicine and law, both nationally and internationally. Caterina Milo grounds the theoretical debate in the realities of how the law presently responds, and how it should respond, to key ethical values informing contemporary medicine and health.

Author Biography

Caterina Milo is Lecturer at the School of Law, University of Sheffield, where she currently leads the Health Law Research Group. She is Fellow of St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
1. An overview of research questions and monograph structure
2. Geographical context
3. Legal context in England and Wales
4. An overview of the approach chosen: the medical encounter, the IC literature and the 'how-approach'
5. Conclusion
Chapter 2 Abortion decision-making: England and Wales as a case study
1. Introduction
2. The neglected 'how-question' in the political abortion debate
3. The neglected how-question in the Abortion Act 1967
4. Limited relevance of the law of tort in the abortion context
5. How far do professional guidelines address the how-question?
6. Conclusion
Chapter 3 The principle of partnership and authentic autonomy
1. Introduction
2. The principle of partnership as a key principle behind the growth of an informed consent approach
3. The proposal of a re-framed understanding of the principle of partnership: from rational-non-interventional paternalism to supported decision-making
4. Conclusion on medical partnership
5. The principle of autonomy
6. Re-writing the principle of autonomy for the abortion context
7. Conclusion
Chapter 4 Legal implications
1. Introduction
2. Proposed Abortion Act 1967 reform to enhance commitment to authentic autonomy and partnership
3. The law of negligence for non-disclosure of material information: emphasising the 'quality' of the medical encounter
4. Conclusion
Chapter 5 What next for a change in public policies? England and Wales as a case-study
1. Introduction
2. The status quo concerning PG and information disclosure
3. Disclosure of risks and PG: current approaches and considerations for revision
4. Disclosure of variant treatments and alternatives in the context of PG: current approaches and consideration for revision
5. What next for PG on information disclosure of risks, variant treatments and alternatives? Some conclusive remarks
6. PG and enhancement of support: the role of wider medical and non-medical staff
7. Recognising the benefits and minimising possible informative harms
Chapter 6 The transversal application of the proposed model in a European context:
The existent challenges concerning the safeguard of IC to abortion in Europe and a call for change
1. Introduction
2. An overview of abortion regulation in Europe: offering a typology
3. The de-medicalization of abortion in Europe: a key common thread in Western Europe
4. The suggestions formulated in this thesis are transversally applicable
5. Conclusion
Chapter 7 Conclusion
1. Introduction
2. The status quo
3. How can Montgomery inform the context of abortion?
4. The message that this book wishes to send

Index