Enhancement e salute nel rapporto medico paziente

The issue of Enhancement is both a mirror and a benchmark of the current evolution of patient-physician relationship. From the perspective of the patient, emphasis on self-determination tends to monopolise the field leading to an impoverishment of the relationship which risks being reduced to a business to consumer one. Informed consent should not be equated to a simple demand of performance no matter the type of performance. Consent comes from the Latin “con-sentire” (mutually agree) to a proposal of the physician which is framed by the rules and ends of medical science and practice. This involves the medical perspective and the issue of deontological ethics of medicine that the Author examines also in light of the recent new code of deontology of Italian Physicians. Since physicians are professionals, they are not allowed to act only as mere individuals, because in their actions they also represent the community of physicians. Consequently, when medical acts go beyond the therapy this is a crossing of the Rubicon, which physicians, philosophers and jurists should rightly discuss. Moreover, the Author stresses the principle of respect of the person that the Italian constitution placed at the heart of medical treatments.