TY - JOUR T1 - Nudging, informed consent and bullshit JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics SP - 536 LP - 542 DO - 10.1136/medethics-2017-104480 VL - 44 IS - 8 AU - William Simkulet Y1 - 2018/08/01 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/44/8/536.abstract N2 - Some philosophers have argued that during the process of obtaining informed consent, physicians should try to nudge their patients towards consenting to the option the physician believes best, where a nudge is any influence that is expected to predictably alter a person’s behaviour without (substantively) restricting her options. Some proponents of nudging even argue that it is a necessary and unavoidable part of securing informed consent. Here I argue that nudging is incompatible with obtaining informed consent. I assume informed consent requires that a physician tells her patient the truth about her options and argue that nudging is incompatible with truth-telling. Instead, nudging satisfies Harry Frankfurt’s account of bullshit. ER -