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When Is Informed Consent Valid?

There are three principles that must be satisfied for informed consent to be valid: the patient must have the capacity to consent, they must be informed of the procedure or treatment, and they must agree to proceed voluntarily without coercion. While adults are generally presumed to make their own healthcare decisions, some have limited or no capacity to do so. Health practitioners must assess each person's situation individually. Substituted consent is required for medical treatment of adults with impaired decision-making capacity, except for urgent or minor, uncontroversial care, or if the patient objects. Certain highly invasive procedures for children also require consent from a guardianship tribunal.

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47 views1 page

When Is Informed Consent Valid?

There are three principles that must be satisfied for informed consent to be valid: the patient must have the capacity to consent, they must be informed of the procedure or treatment, and they must agree to proceed voluntarily without coercion. While adults are generally presumed to make their own healthcare decisions, some have limited or no capacity to do so. Health practitioners must assess each person's situation individually. Substituted consent is required for medical treatment of adults with impaired decision-making capacity, except for urgent or minor, uncontroversial care, or if the patient objects. Certain highly invasive procedures for children also require consent from a guardianship tribunal.

Uploaded by

Benny Pojer
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Informed Consent

When is informed consent valid?


There are three principles that need to be satisfied for consent to be valid:
1. The patient must have the capacity to consent.
2. The patient must be informed of the procedure or treatment.
3. The patient must have agreed to proceed voluntarily, without coercion.

Can a person make his or her own decisions?
In general, it is presumed that adults can make their own decisions about health
care. However, some adults can not, or have limited ability to do so. No universally
accepted standard exists for assessing capacity to make decisions about health care.

Health practitioners need to assess each persons situation individually.

A patients competency can be expressed in terms of their capacity to:
receive, comprehend, retain and recall relevant information
integrate the information received and relate it to their situation
evaluate benefits and harms in terms of personal values
select an option and give convincing reasons for the choice
communicate their choice to others
persevere with that choice, at least until the decision is acted upon.

When is consent needed for medical treatment?
With two exceptions, substituted consent (ie from the person responsible or
statutory health attorney) is required for all medical treatment for an adult with
impaired capacity for that decision.

The exceptions are:
1. When urgent health care is required to meet imminent risk to the patients
life or health or prevent significant pain or distress
2. When the health care is minor and uncontroversial (eg physical examination,
blood tests, noninvasive investigations such as X-rays and ultrasound), and
the adult with disability is not objecting to the treatment by word or deed.

As for children, the person responsible (including a guardian) cannot give consent for
certain highly invasive or irreversible procedures. These include termination of
pregnancy, sterilisation, participation in research and removal of nonregenerative
tissue for transplantation. These decisions need to be made by the relevant
guardianship tribunal.

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