Opinion ID: 795353
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Objective Standard

Text: 27 The right to medical information has an objective component. The prisoner is entitled only to such information as a reasonable patient would deem necessary to make an informed decision. This objective requirement limits the scope of the right in at least three ways. First, it precludes liability in cases where a prisoner may not have received all conceivable information regarding a particular treatment but a reasonable person would not find the missing information necessary to a decision regarding whether to go forward with that treatment. Second, it recognizes that prisoners' requests for information may range from reasonable to obstructionist. White, 897 F.2d at 113. Prisoners may not interfere with a prison's ability to provide medical attention to its inmates in an orderly, efficient manner by demanding unnecessary information during physician visits. Finally, it is not unlikely that, after receiving appropriate treatment that proved to have unpleasant side effects, a prisoner might claim that he had not received sufficient information to allow him to decide whether to refuse that treatment. To avoid liability in such situations, a doctor should not be required to provide each prisoner-patient with an exhaustive list of all the possible adverse effects of each aspect of his treatment. Instead, a doctor simply must provide a prisoner with such information as a reasonable patient would find necessary to making an informed decision regarding treatment options. 28