The great conflict: paradigm change in modern medical patient relations

Abstract

Over a long period of medical history, the ideal ethical interaction between the physician and the patient was based on guaranteeing the first full autonomy over the given treatment, however, without taking into account the patient's own perception of the decisions that fell upon his body, health and life. This ethical interaction, described by many as paternalistic, is no longer a reality, given the noticeable paradigm shift in the doctor-patient relationship experienced in recent years. In this sense, the present article aims to analyze the general panorama of the historical development of medical ethics and its action situation in Brazil to, in the end, verify the current paradigm change in the doctor-patient relationship. Justified by the numerous medical conflicts in the legal sphere, the brief research seeks to meet the concerns that affect both the medical and the legal world. In the end, it will be verified that changes that occurred, for example, during anamnesis and in therapy, contributed for that the unilateral decision became shared; and the doctor-patient relationship, until then authoritarian and paternalistic, became a contractualist.