Informed Consent and Ethical Research

Although today valid informed consent is considered key to ethical research, there is no agreement on what constitutes adequate informed consent. Problems ensue firstly from the circumstance that a principle adopted in one area of inquiry (biomedicine) cannot be extended literally to other areas of science. In addition, new areas of scholarly inquiry and changing research contexts contribute to the emergence of new forms of consent (open, broad, dynamic, meta-consent). A second difficulty derives from an overly narrow understanding of the concept of autonomy, resulting in an absolutizing of individual freedom and choices and relegating more collective values such as reciprocity, responsibility, and solidarity to the background.

In this chapter, we explain the origin of the concept of informed consent, what it consists of, and what forms it can take. We will then analyze what has caused shifts in the understanding of the informed consent principle: how much is due to advancements in science and technology and how much to changing ethical frameworks. Finally, we will show why it is important to develop a contextual approach by taking into account differences in research fields as well as types of research.

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Acknowledgments

This work is based on research undertaken for the research project IUT20-5, funded by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and supported by the Centre of Excellence in Estonian Studies (European Union, European Regional Development Fund). We also profited from our research done for the PRO-RES project, funded by the European Commission Horizon 2020 Program. We are grateful to Tiina Kirss for her editing and help with English expression.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Philosophy, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia Margit Sutrop
2. Centre for Ethics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia Kristi Lõuk

1. Margit Sutrop