Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

A comparison is drawn between informed consent in medicine and consenting practices in other areas of human activity, and an underlying conceptual unity is detected in all of these consenting practices. We insist on obtaining consent, in medicine and elsewhere, because of the value we place on personal autonomy. The conceptual unity of informed consent and consenting practices outside of medicine is defended against a series of objections. On the basis of the comparison with consenting practices in other areas of human activity, it is argued that bureaucratic informed consent processes in medicine are both unnecessary and unwarranted.

Type

Journal article

Journal

J Clin Neurosci

Publication Date

01/2003

Volume

10

Pages

35 - 36

Keywords

Disclosure, Ethics, Medical, Humans, Informed Consent, Paternalism, Personal Autonomy