The Role of Informed Consent in Clinical and Research Settings

Abstract

Informed consent plays an integral role in governing the patient-physician relationship with origins traced back to ancient Greek philosophy. The main pillars of informed consent are autonomy, integrity, respect, and care. In the last century, these notions have been codified into legislation to promote healthy patient-physician relationships. Understanding the process of informed consent is critical for patients, researchers, and medical practitioners. In this article, the authors provide a brief historical narrative of informed consent, elaborate on the process of obtaining an ethically and legally valid informed consent, and present some of the future challenges in the field.

Keywords: Autonomy; Capacity; Competence; Decision-making; Health care communication; Informed consent; Patient-physician relationship.