Consent to testing for brain death
Original research
Barry Lyons, Mary Donnelly
Journal of Medical Ethics, 25 October 2023
Abstract
Canada has recently published a new Clinical Practice Guideline on the diagnosis and management of brain death. It states that consent is not necessary to carry out the interventions required to make the diagnosis. A supporting article not only sets out the arguments for this but also contends that ‘UK laws similarly carve out an exception, excusing clinicians from a prima facie duty to get consent’. This is supplemented by the claim that recent court decisions in the UK similarly confirm that consent is not required, referencing two judgements in Battersbee. We disagree with the authors’ interpretation of the law on consent in the UK and argue that there is nothing in Battersbee to support the conclusion that consent to testing is not necessary. Where there is a disagreement about testing for brain death in the UK, court authorisation is required.
Month: December 2023
Birthing Consent: Supporting Shared Decision Making and Informed Consent in Labour and Childbirth
Birthing Consent: Supporting Shared Decision Making and Informed Consent in Labour and Childbirth
Book Chapter
Laura Pascoe
Consent: Gender, Power and Subjectivity, 2023 [Routledge]
Abstract
Labour and childbirth are vulnerable yet powerful experiences for birth givers. In an ideal world, women and other birth givers are active and informed participants in their care and their consent is sought throughout labour, birth, and postpartum by their health providers. Due to competing interests and the medicalization of childbirth, however, many birth givers are unprepared for the choices they may face or are unaware that the decisions presented to them are theirs to make. Highlighting the perspectives of midwives and doulas who take a normal and physiologic approach to birth, this chapter explores why informed consent in labour and childbirth is so important, what gets in the way of informed consent, and concrete strategies to best facilitate informed consent. In particular, this chapter examines how health providers and doulas can facilitate informed consent to ensure that no matter what the birth experience, birth givers feel respected, cared for, and heard.
Informed consent in surgical practice with patients’ experiences: A cross-sectional study
Informed consent in surgical practice with patients’ experiences: A cross-sectional study
Seda Kumru, Pakize Yiğit, Meryem Demirtaş, Hüseyin Fındık
Patient Experience Journal, 2023; 10(3) pp 42-48
Abstract
This study aims to evaluate patients’ experiences and perspectives regarding informed consent in surgical practice. Data for this cross-sectional study were collected from 276 patients using a questionnaire developed by Falagas et al. Descriptive statistics were employed for all questions. Statistical tests such as the Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Spearman’s rank correlation analysis were performed, and Cohen’s effect sizes were reported. IBM SPSS 23.0 was used for all analyses, and p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. A high score on both The Delivered Information Index and The Patient-Physician Index represents a positive informed consent process. Among the participants, 65.2% indicated that they understood all parts of the consent form. Of all patients, 92.8% reported that information about the specific surgical procedure was provided by physicians. However, 47.5% of the patients reported that they did not feel comfortable with their surgeons. The mean score of the Delivered Information Index was 5.63 (2.38). The mean patient-physician relationship score was 14.38 (3.31). There was a moderate positive correlation between the delivered information index and the patient-physician relationship (r=0.50; p<0.001). In addition, there was a moderate positive correlation between the delivered information index and the time spent on the informed consent process, as well as between the patient-physician relationship and the time spent on the informed consent process (r=0.52; r=0.40, respectively). The study emphasized the lack of communication between patients and physicians, the limitation of information on treatment risks, adverse effects, and alternative treatment options.
Public health measures and the rise of incidental surveillance: Considerations about private informational power and accountability
Public health measures and the rise of incidental surveillance: Considerations about private informational power and accountability
Original Paper
A. Kamphorst, A. Henschke
Ethics and Information Technology, 16 November 2023
Open Access
Abstract
The public health measures implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in a substantially increased shared reliance on private infrastructure and digital services in areas such as healthcare, education, retail, and the workplace. This development has (i) granted a number of private actors significant (informational) power, and (ii) given rise to a range of digital surveillance practices incidental to the pandemic itself. In this paper, we reflect on these secondary consequences of the pandemic and observe that, even though collateral data disclosure and additional activity monitoring appears to have been generally socially accepted as inevitable consequences of the pandemic, part and parcel of a larger conglomeration of emergency compromises, these increased surveillance practices were not directly justified by appeals to solidarity and public health in the same way that the instigating public health measures were. Based on this observation, and given the increased reliance on private actors for maintaining the digital space, we argue that governments have a duty to (i) seek and ensure that there are justifications for collateral data disclosure and activity monitoring by private actors in the context of (future) public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, and (ii) regulate and provide accountability mechanisms for and oversight over these private surveillance practices on par with governmental essential services that engage in surveillance activities.
Consent as Mechanism to Preserve Information Privacy: Its Origin, Evolution, and Current Relevance
Consent as Mechanism to Preserve Information Privacy: Its Origin, Evolution, and Current Relevance
Conference paper
Marietjie Botes
International Workshop on Security and Trust Management, STM 2023, 30 October 2023
Abstract
Informed consent and the requirements to obtain ethical-legal sound consent has a long and rich history that originated with the medical treatment of patients and then evolved into its application in the field of biomedical research. The same concepts and principles of consent has been adopted to be applied in the digital sphere. However, upon closer scrutiny it is clear why this principle, that originated for the protection of a person’s bodily integrity cannot be adequately applied in the digital sphere to protect people’s personal data. To the contrary it transpired that the ethical-legal requirements of consent has been made futile in the context of digital consent receipts by erroneously comparing and applying this concept to transactions receipts and commercial contracts. This paper investigates this evolution of biomedical consent to digital consent and analyze the difference between the concept of consent as it developed for biomedical application and compare that with the current application of consent in the digital sphere.
Consent: Legacies, Representations, and Frameworks for the Future
Consent: Legacies, Representations, and Frameworks for the Future
Book
Sophie Franklin, Hannah Piercy, Arya Thampuran, Rebecca White
Routledge, 2023
Abstract
Consent: Legacies, Representations, and Frameworks for the Future examines the conceptualisation of ‘consent’ across various historical periods, cultures, and disciplines to offer an expansive, pluralistic vision for future articulations of consent as it circulates throughout contemporary life in sexual encounters, medical contexts, and media representations.
This volume is distinctive in its diverse conceptual scope and commitment to cross-disciplinary dialogue, accommodating perspectives on consent that are contextually sensitive and culturally diverse. The chapters examine a range of topics, from socio-cultural engagements with consent in Latin American music, feminist movements in Pakistan, and BDSM in Poland, to theoretical and pedagogical ones exploring alternative possibilities for framing and understanding consent through intersectional approaches and institutional curricula.
Consent: Legacies, Representations, and Frameworks for the Future is of value to researchers, practitioners, undergraduate and postgraduate students, and general readers interested in histories, representations, and future possibilities of consent in its many manifestations.
Center for Informed Consent Integrity 