Informed Consent

Informed consent is a common legal, regulatory, and ethical prerequisite to the implementation of various professional services, interventions, or actions. It is given and obtained when individuals (or their legal designates) voluntarily choose and explicitly agree to receive or participate in a specific course of action that could positively or negatively affect their health or well-being, including their privacy or other rights. Although informed consent is used in various areas of service provision, including law, personal finance, and education, it has received most attention relative to health care and biomedical or behavioral research conducted with human participants. For example, informed consent is required from patients before physicians conduct treatments such as surgery. Similarly, informed consent is required before a researcher administers an experimental protocol with ...