Promover la toma de decisiones en materia de salud y la dignidad inherente de los pacientes

Catholic moral teaching affirms that the consent of patients is necessary to authorize healthcare interventions affecting them but does not specify conditions for obtaining consent or assessing decision-making capacity. This article reviews papers in this issue that authors have developed from presentations they made during a recent International Association of Catholic Bioethics (IACB) colloquium held in Quebec City, Canada. These papers contribute to advancing ethical thinking on decision-making capacity and consent. In various ways, they call for respecting the dignity of allpatients by promoting their participating as much as possible in making healthcare decisions. These papers consider decision making to be relational and to encompass a range of capabilities. They examine the role of family members and other decision-making supporters in promoting the capabilities of patients whose mental health condition or disability renders them unable often to meet typical clinical and legal standards for decision-making capacity.