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claimant (plaintiff): the alleged injured party who seeks damages in a tort suit
(para 4-2a).
clinical ethics: a type of ethics that involves identificatin, analysis, and
resolution of moral problems encountered at the bedside (para 1-5a).
common law: a body of laws originating from Federal, state , and local court
decisions (para 3-5a).
compensatory damages: payment designed to make the injured party "whole"
to the extent that money can do so (para 4-2b).
* competent (for consent purposes): having the mental capacity to understand
information, deliberate according to values, weigh the consequences of one's
own decisions, and communicate one's wishes; a legal determination
(para 1-23b).
* confidentiality: the ethical responsibility of health care providers to maintain the
secrets of their patients, communicated to them or learned through observation,
examination, or conversation, and not to communicate same except to those with
an official need to know (para 3-8).
* consent: the free (uncoerced) authorization of the patient to make his or her
own decisions as to whether or not, and how to receive competent medical care
(para 1-2).
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damages: payment (compensation) for injury in a tort suit (para 4-2b).
decisions and rules: mandates and decisions from Federal and state
administrative agencies, e.g., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
(para 3-4a).
defamation: injury to another person's reputation, either spoken (slander) or in
writing (libel) (para 4-3c).
defendant: See "actor."
* Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order: a written order to suspend an otherwise
automatic initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) (para 2-8a).
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