Abandoning informed consent: an idea whose time has not yet come

In a recent critique of informed consent, Robert Veatch argues that the practice is in principle unable to attain the goals for which it was developed. We argue that Veatch's focus on the theoretical impossibility of determining patients' best interests is misapplied to the practical discipline of medicine, and that he wrongly assumes that the patient-physician communication fails to provide the knowledge needed to insure the patient's best interests. We further argue that Veatch's suggested alternative, value-based patient-professional pairing, is, on his own terms, impossible to implement. Finally, we reexamine the philosophical and practical justifications for informed consent and conclude that the practice should be retained.     

Thyroid angiography

Twelve patients were studied by selective thyroid angiography for the evaluation of solitary thyroid nodule. Under aseptic conditions with local anesthesia a No 7 preshaped catheter was introduced through the femoral artery and guided to the thyrocervical trunk and inferior thyroid artery. Selectively, 2 to 6 cc of the contrast material was injected and a series of radiographs were taken. Striking differences were noticed in vessels in abnormal thyroid gland. In colloid goiter there was no filling of the vessels in the nodule. In fetal adenoma there was unusual branching of the vessels but no arteriovenous communications. In carcinoma, along with increased vascularities and abnormal branching, arteriovenous communications were noted.     

Measuring oxygen permeabilities of polymer films by a new singlet oxygen technique

A new sensitive method is described for measuring the permeation and diffusion of oxygen through polymer films. For these measurements an ethyl cellulose film containing 9,10-dimethylanthracene (DMA) and erythrosin may be either tightly sealed between two pieces of sample film in a simple cell or sealed in a pouch made from the test material, and is used to absorb oxygen which has passed through the polymer film sample from the air. On illumination this oxygen is converted by the erythrosin to singlet oxygen which then reacts with the DMA. After an initial scavenging period, the rate of permeation of oxygen under the atmospheric pressure gradient across the film is monitored by determining the rate of disappearance of DMA spectrophotometrically.