Living bioethics, theories and children’s consent to heart surgery

Assent, consent and paediatric bioethics

In the ethics of relations between physicians and paediatric patients the question of autonomy and its corollary, consent, is crucial. While the importance attached to autonomy in the clinical setting is not the same as that accorded in research, it nonetheless assumes greater relevance when minors are involved, and a careful case-by-case assessment becomes obligatory. In a book published in 19...

Biotechnology, bioethics and Liberalism: problematizing risk, consent and law.

At the conclusion of the famous article of 1953 announcing the molecular structure of DNA, Watson and Crick observed “that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for genetic material.” Six months later, Pope Pius XII addressed the First International Conference of Medical Genetics on ethical issues. The Pope said that since the aim of genetics ...

Living Organ Donation: Consent Challenges

Multidisciplinary approach to consent in arthroplasty surgery.

The process of consenting has been in the heart of the surgical practice as the binding contract between the informed patient and the entrusted treating surgeon. This is to protect the patient’s autonomy and respect their right to determine their treatment. Consent validity relies on the provision of procedure information and the capacity of competent patient to understand it 1 . The Irish la...

Intention to consent to living organ donation: an exploratory study.

Living organ donation, that is the removal and transplantation of whole organs or segments of organs that a volunteering donor can live without, has been proposed as an effective and sustainable source of transplantable organs to mitigate the deficit in supply from the traditional cadaveric donor pool. In 2006, the Irish government deemed the development of a national Living Transplant Programm...