Patient autonomy is a key term in medicine ethics. For this notion characterizing a general ability is of less importance; the primary focus lies on guaranteeing a situational independence of action (Beauchamp/Childress 2009): Once they have been appropriately informed, the patients have a right to agreeing or rejecting medical treatments. Hence the major criterion within the concept of patient autonomy is informed consent which is to be found where patients purposely decide, possess an understanding and are free of the control of others.

This procedural concept of autonomy is a neutral one because it is defined through the process of decision making only and does not focus on the content of the decision itself. It has gotten around to becoming the standard view within medicine ethics. Due to the existing interdependence between medicine ethical terms and general philosophical autonomy theories there is an ongoing discussion on possible alternative ways of understanding the term “patient autonomy”. Philosophers representing substantial concepts of autonomy consider the integration of content- and value-dependent criteria necessary. Representatives of relational autonomy concepts lay emphasis on mutual relationships of acknowledgement which they consider constitutive of autonomous decisions. Since different concepts of autonomy are based on different ideals regarding the term “autonomous subject”, the risk of autonomy representing an excessive demand is often argued: Part of that argument is the statement that requirements for patient autonomy within clinical practice need to be kept on a very modest level in order to include as many patients as possible.