知情同意权是患者的一项基本权利, 但是在我国目前的医疗实务中, 该项权利却普遍地由患者的家属予以行使。本文围绕应当由谁来行使“有同意能力的患者”的知情同意权这一问题, 由现行法的态度出发, 从正反两个角度论证了应当由患者本人行使其知情同意权的观点。

The right of informed consent is a basic legal right of patients. However, in China’s current medical practices, this right is usually exercised by a patient’s next of kin. This article focuses on the question that who should exercise the right of informed consent of the patients who are virtually competent to make medical decisions. It first discusses the statutory attitude towards this question, and then it argues for the contention that it is the patient himself, rather than his next of kin, who should exercise the right of informed consent, both from positive and negative perspectives.