Third-Party Consent

Abstract: KIE: England's Court of Appeal, Civil Division, ruled that parents had the right to prevent a physician at the local health authority from prescribing contraceptives to girls under the age of 16 without parental consent. Since a girl was legally incapable of giving valid consent in other matters before that age, neither could she give valid consent to contraception or abortion. A doctor who provided contraception or abortion treatment to a girl under 16, except in an emergency or with permission of the court, would infringe on the legal rights of the parents. An appeal was taken to the House of Lords.

Abstract: A PUBLICATION OF THE HASTINGS CENTER International regulations and guidelines for human subjects research emphasize that investigators must obtain voluntary informed consent from each research participant. Many research ethics committees require written informed consent and the use of a consent form, which describes the purpose and procedures of the study and its potential risks and benefits of participation; explains that participation is voluntary and that subjects can withdraw at any time; and provides information about maintaining subject privacy and confidentiality of research data. Consent forms and other information provided to participants should be in a language understandable to the participant or to the parent or guardian if the participant is a child.2 Yet an individual-based consent model and the use of written consent documents may be problematic in countries where norms of decision-making do not emphasize individual autonomy and where there are nonliterate populations. Thus, several guidelines and reports on research ethics endorse the use of community approval and verbal consent for research in countries where cultural values and practices emphasize oral rather than written agree-