Direct-to-Consumer Drug Advertisements and the Informed Patient: A Legal, Ethical, and Content Analysis

摘要

In this article we have taken seriously the pharmaceutical industry's primary justification for DTC advertising: patients should be better informed so that they can be empowered to take greater responsibility over their health. This position is grounded in the ethical and legal concept of patient autonomy, which purports to respect the individual decision making of patients who are imagined to be partners with their health-care providers in seeking health-care solutions. As we discussed in Part I, a powerful consensus has developed around this idea that patients can and should be educated about their health and more directly involved in decisions that impact it.