Rethinking Informed Consent in Bioethics

A coherent, wide-ranging and practical account of the role of consent in biomedicine, first published in 2007.

Neil C. Manson (Author), Onora O'Neill (Author)

9780521874588, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 March 2007

228 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.51 kg

'This is a ground-breaking book. The idea that information is dynamic, that what, in this genetic age, even comprises information, receives intelligent, thorough, and necessary reflection. The focus on the activity of communicating as opposed to what is being communicated holds great promise. Such a move opens up a perspective where obligations do not attach a priori to certain kinds of information, but to the manner in which actual engagement with such information occurs. This begins to get at a complexity, in the area of informed consent, that has been missed.' Mark Sheldon, Professor of Philosophy, Northwestern University

Informed consent is a central topic in contemporary biomedical ethics. Yet attempts to set defensible and feasible standards for consenting have led to persistent difficulties. In Rethinking Informed Consent in Bioethics, first published in 2007, Neil Manson and Onora O'Neill set debates about informed consent in medicine and research in a fresh light. They show why informed consent cannot be fully specific or fully explicit, and why more specific consent is not always ethically better. They argue that consent needs distinctive communicative transactions, by which other obligations, prohibitions, and rights can be waived or set aside in controlled and specific ways. Their book offers a coherent, wide-ranging and practical account of the role of consent in biomedicine which will be valuable to readers working in a range of areas in bioethics, medicine and law.

1. Consent: Nuremburg, Helsinki and beyond
2. Information and communication: the drift from agency
3. Informing and communicating: back to agency
4. How to rethink informed consent
5. Informational privacy and data protection
6. Genetic information and genetic exceptionalism
7. Trust, accountability and transparency
Some conclusions and proposals.

Subject Areas: Medical ethics & professional conduct [MBDC], Medicine [M], Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Philosophy [HP]