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Informed consent
Author(s) -
Bernat James L.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
muscle and nerve
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.025
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 1097-4598
pISSN - 0148-639X
DOI - 10.1002/mus.1046
Subject(s) - informed consent , coercion (linguistics) , duty , psychology , medicine , duty to protect , family medicine , duty of care , medical emergency , law , alternative medicine , political science , philosophy , linguistics , pathology
Physicians have an ethical and legal duty to obtain patients' informed consent before ordering testing and treatment. Informed consent encompasses informed refusal, the correlative right of patients to refuse tests and therapies they do not want. A patient's informed consent requires adequate information, capacity to decide, and absence of coercion. Informed consent is incorporated into a process of agreement between a patient and a physician called “shared decision making.” The procedural requirements of informed consent vary as a function of the risks of the tests or treatments. Incompetent patients require surrogate decision makers to consent or refuse on their behalf. Older children and adolescents should be asked to provide their assent for treatment in addition to their parents' permission. Treatment may be provided in an emergency situation without consent if the treatment given represents the standard of emergency care. Consent of human subjects for participation in research requires that they fully understand their role and risks, not be coerced, and be allowed to withdraw at any time without penalty. Institutional review boards help guarantee the protection of human subjects. Vulnerable research subjects, such as children and the cognitively or mentally impaired, require additional protection. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Muscle Nerve 24: 614–621, 2001