A patient’s/client’s explicit agreement to the care and treatment to be provided, based on full information on his or her condition/diagnosis, the existing options for treatment and the possible beneficial and adverse effects of those options.
Patients’ rights are a growing concern for doctors and patients. A controversial aspect of their clinical relationship is consent: doctors need signed agreement from patients before carrying out operations or procedures; before entering patients in clinical trials; and before publishing clinical details or photographs of patients for medical education in print or electronic media. Consent is said to be informed when patients are fully aware of the consequences and risks of the procedure in question. For example, doctors and other health professionals should tell patients of the complications of a treatment and the likelihood of its success. They should make sure that the patients understand the information given; patients should be given the opportunity to ask questions and, where appropriate, immediate relatives should be involved in the process. Doctors are often inclined to highlight the bene?ts of a treatment, while downplaying the risks, but the General Medical Council in the United Kingdom has shown its willingness to discipline doctors who go beyond the consent that they were given by patients.
Although the precise limits will remain dif?cult to de?ne in some settings, informed consent should be obtained from patients in accordance with guidelines from professional medical organisations. Patients or close relatives should consult the local NHS authorities or help-groups if they are dissatis?ed with their doctors’ explanations.
the principle that requires clinicians to provide sufficient information to patients or potential research participants in order to render their *consent lawful. How much information and of what kind is regarded as sufficient depends on the seriousness of what is proposed and on the understanding of those from whom consent is required.
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