Consent

Further on our discussion yesterday, one crucial question that may skip your eyes is: Did the woman consent to the whole business ?

Do you see the problem here ? If she agrees to the resuscitation, with full autonomy and after considering all the pros and cons - the latter includes the potential risk of losing a bit of her privacy from being taken some explicit photo by some peeping news specialist - there's nothing to worry.

At this point, you may argue: The woman was obviously not aware of the risk of having a peeper around.

Right. In that case, to satisfy all fans of medical ethics and die-hard supporters of patient autonomy, when a similar situation happens next time, is it necessary to explain all these risks to the patient, and asks if they prefers defibrillation be done with their clothes on or being taken off (which is obviously the more, if not only, effective way) ?

In other words, should the practitioner do the right thing in a timely manner, or should he make a full explanation and give all the time for the patient to consider - so that the patient could make the best decision with hindsight in heaven ?