Following the recent commentary on the importance of body donation for anatomical examination and teaching in Northern Ireland, the issue of organ donation has also received a fresh impetus. Organ donation is a fundamental concept in medical treatment. A recent survey on organ donation has indicated that approximately 90% of the UK population is in favour of organ donation. However, out of thos...

"Informed consent" sets a goal for investigators experimenting with human subjects, but little is known about how to achieve or evaluate it in an experiment. In a 3-year, double-blind study with incarcerated men, we attempted to provide a "free and informed consent" and evaluated our efforts with an unannounced questionnaire administered to subjects after they completed the experiment. At that ...

IN HIS PERSPECTIVE “HOMO EXPERIMENTALIS EVOLVES” (11 JULY, P. 207), J. A. LIST PROUDLY acknowledges that economists perform experiments on human subjects without notifying them: “[I]n a natural f ield experiment, the analyst manipulates experimental conditions in a natural manner, whereby the experimental subjects are unaware that they are participating in an experiment. This approach combines ...

This Essay explains why and how the Roman Catholic basis for informed consent is different from the secular basis. It argues that the Catholic basis, which is rooted in “natural law,” is the better model for society to adopt. The author explains that the secular view is rooted in the belief that patient autonomy must never be violated but the Catholic view is based on human dignity, which simpl...

PURPOSE To evaluate understanding of the fundamental concepts of informed consent by the public and patients. METHODS Questionnaires were distributed to any persons (aged more than 16 years) attending the Palmerston North Hospital (excluding in-patients). The first 1000 completed questionnaires were analysed using the Chi squared test. RESULTS The fundamental concepts of informed consent we...