Medical Research: Informed Consent

Explain how and why the concept of informed consent is critical to issues of euthanasia (active and passive) as well as physician-assisted suicide. Informed consent is a process for getting permission before conducting a healthcare intervention on a person, autonomy at its best. In physician assisted suicide we have the informed consent of the patient requesting the help to die. In this instance the patient is the direct cause or their own death, they just require the physician to help them get the medicine needed to end their life, they decide where and when to do it, and they are competent when making this decision. This is important when it comes to the law and the physician possibly being sued. In active euthanasia the physician gives

When a patient needs to have a medical procedure performed, they must first consent to the procedure. Before accepting or rejecting the treatment, the practitioner is required to give the patient information pertaining to the risks and benefits of the procedure, as well as available alternatives. Additionally, the patient must be mentally competent enough to make an informed decision, and not be manipulated or coerced into a decision.

In this case, the night of January 11, 1983, Nancy Cruzan was driving a car and lost control of her car as she traveled down Elm Road in Jasper County, Missouri. The car overturned, and Nancy Cruzan was discovered lying face down in a ditch without detectable respiratory and cardiac function. Paramedics were able to restore her breathing and heartbeat at the accident site and she was transported to a hospital in an unconscious state. Then neurosurgeon diagnosed her and found that she is having sustained probable cerebral contusions compounded by significant anoxia (lack of oxygen). The Missouri trial court found that permanent brain damage generally results after 6 minutes in an anoxic state and Nancy was in this stage for 12 to 14 minutes.

If you wish to participate in this research study, please sign the form below. Your signature verifies that you agree to participate in the research study for Physical Therapists role in Chronic Diseases. Also, by signing below you are at least 18 years or older.

Review Ethics boards should be considerate of the patient’s they are using to conduct their research by first having them fill out an agreement to participate in the research. This idea is reinforced by a field researcher who had to get the patients to sign permission slips before interviewing them and the research wouldn’t reveal their identity. The field researcher found this was an effective way to make the patients whom the experiment is being conducted on comfortable and willing to participate. It allows the patients to have a say on whether they are willing to have specific research done on them whether related to psychological reasons such as asking questions or to have biological research

Informed consent is the current guiding principle for the ethical conduct in medical research and originated after the 1947 Nuremberg Code and the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki (Nguyen et al., 2015). The purpose of the informed consent process is to provide potential research subjects information about the nature of the clinical trial, the risks, benefits, underlying procedures, and alternative treatments (Bloswick & Skowron, 2015). The research team must provide the patient with sufficient information so the participant can fully make an informed, uncoerced choice about whether to begin or continue participation in a clinical trial. This process is an ongoing exchange between the subject and the research team throughout the research study.

When dealing with research and collecting data to be publish it is important and the research need to have an informed consent from the participate. An informed consent is a voluntary agreement to participate in a research. This an important document because it is needing to publish the research. The informed consent form goes over the risks and the participate understand the risk that might could happen in the research. The informed Consent goes over and describes the ethical codes and it also goes over the regulation for human subject’s research. Informed consent form is use when information is being transfer between the patients and the physicians. Informed consent form is use in IVF treatment because it deal with medical procedures and

Informed consent is an important ethical principle which is applicable to medicine and research. By definition it should be given freely, without coercion (1). All the relevant information which might influence or inform the participant’s decision such as the nature of the study, the risks and benefits must be provided by the researcher (1). Participants should be informed that they can withdraw their consent at any time and withdraw from the study.

Informed consent is a very important aspect of modern medicine. The patient has the right to know what drugs they are receiving and what side effects are known to accompany the drug. This is a basic human right and helps to create trust between the doctor and patient due to the openness of the diagnosis and recommended treatment.

In the 21st century Doctors and Researchers take informed consent very seriously. What is informed consent? Informed consent is the patient rights of awareness of treatment the doctor intends to give. Four guidelines/ rules are followed to confirm the patient has informed consent. Knowing the information about the study and telling patient specific details that will help them understand what will be occur during treatment/ research. The role the patient will have about the study. The contact information of the researcher/ doctor so patients can choose to back out of treatment anytime. The patient should know the risks and Benefits of the research. Patients should be aware of any possible adverse side effects and if there is no personal benefit, then the benefit of the research/ treatment for the overall population because of the study. Doctors and Researchers today initiate these guidelines when giving treatment or asking patient to participate in experiments/ studies. However it hasn’t always hasn’t been the case.

to the plan of the doctor for their care. This highlights a part of the informed

According to the NIH website, “informed consent explains risks and potential benefits about a clinical trial before someone decides whether to participate.” 4 When the researcher obtains consent they are respecting the patient and enabling them to self-governing plus upholding the principle of respect for persons. IRBs have been a good standard for ethical research; however with the advancing fields of research in genetics, reproduction, and neurology, it may be time to develop more regulations.

In the words of Elliott, Aitken, and Chaboyer (2006), "in principle, any procedure that involves intentional contact by a healthcare practitioner with the body of a patient is considered an invasion of the patient's bodily integrity, and as such requires the patient's consent." Healthcare research is one such procedure and for that reason, there is a specific legal requirement of consent that seeks to govern healthcare research. Informed consent as Niles (2012) points out plays a critical role when it comes to the protection of human subjects. Indeed, conducting healthcare research without a valid patient's consent effectively "gives rise to the possibility of a subject suing in negligence or civil assault" (Forrester and Griffiths, 2010).

Where possible, participants should be informed about the nature of the study and all the aspect of the research that are likely to affect their willingness to become participants (Macaskill, 2008). The information may include the purpose of the research, the expected duration, the methods being used, the possible outcomes of the research, as well as associated demands, any prospective research benefits, incentives for participation, discomforts, inconveniences, risks that the participants may face and the person to be contacted with questions (Macaskill, 2008 and Smith, 2003). However, it is not possible to know the exact information the participants may want to know about the research, but the researcher should not leave out any information that would influence whether consent would be granted.

Background: Informed consent is way of providing necessary information to the patients and helping them for decision making. All the pros and cons of procedure must be explained to the patients in the language he or she can understand. Just taking signature of patient on consent form without proper explanation and understanding of him is violating entire process of informed consent.