Informed Consent
Source: Schloendorff v. Society of New York Hospital, 211 N.Y. 125 (1914); Nuremberg Code (1947); Belmont Report (1979) Institution: New York Court of Appeals; International Military Tribunal; National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects
Finding
The legal and ethical requirement that a patient must be given adequate information about a proposed treatment — its nature, risks, benefits, and alternatives — and must voluntarily agree before treatment proceeds. Justice Cardozo (1914): “Every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body.” The Nuremberg Code, written after the Nazi medical experiments, established consent as the absolute prerequisite for human experimentation. The Belmont Report codified respect for persons, beneficence, and justice, with informed consent as the operational expression of respect.
Pattern Mapping
Honesty — Informed consent requires that the physician’s communication matches what the physician knows. Withholding material risks is dishonesty. Fabricating reassurance where genuine risks exist is non-fabrication violated.
Humility — The doctrine explicitly limits the physician’s authority. Regardless of expertise, the decision belongs to the patient. Medical paternalism — “doctor knows best” — is the exercise of authority beyond legitimate scope.
Alignment — Informed consent aligns the physician’s stated purpose (serving the patient’s interest) with the mechanism of treatment (the patient’s autonomous choice).
Connections
- Hippocratic Oath — consent operationalizes the Oath’s proportionality
- CRISPR Gene Therapy — germline editing violates consent of future generations (He Jiankui case)
- Nuremberg Trials — the Code emerged from the darkest violation of medical consent
- Evidence-Based Medicine — both require that claims match evidence, not authority
- Gaslighting — gaslighting destroys the capacity for informed consent by attacking self-trust
Status
Schloendorff (1914). Nuremberg Code (1947). Belmont Report (1979). Faden & Beauchamp, A History and Theory of Informed Consent (1986). The mapping to the five properties is this project’s structural interpretation.
The mapping to the five properties is this project’s structural interpretation.