Abstract

VAZQUEZ GUERRERO, Arturo Rafael et al. Informed consent: Legal or ethical requirement?. Cir. gen [online]. 2017, vol.39, n.3, pp.175-182. ISSN 1405-0099.

Informed consent is the institution, process and most important medical-legal and bioethical document of the doctor-patient or provider-user relationship of health services. Its regulations are scattered in different regulatory bodies of different nature such as civil legislation, the General Health Law, its Regulations and the Mexican Official Norms. In addition to the above, ethical-legal perfection of informed consent implies respect for bioethical principles such as beneficence, not maleficence, autonomy, and justice. Research question: Is informed consent a legal or ethical requirement for legal acts of the physician-patient relationship? Therefore, the objective of this document is to set forth informed consent in its triple sphere (medical, legal and bioethical), its different expressions in Mexican legislation and comment on its main bioethical implications. The legal nature of the patient medical relationship is that of a contract for the provision of professional services with rights and obligations for the parties. Consent is a prerequisite for the existence of the previous contract. Informed consent is defined as the agreement of will between physician and patient in which the former makes a medical or surgical plan proposal, reports risks, benefits and requests authorization to attend to emergencies and contingencies arising from the authorized act followed by the patient’s (or his/her representative if necessary), physician and two witnesses’ signature and acceptance. The informed consent must simultaneously respect the requirements, form and content established by civil and health legislation and the bioethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice in order to achieve its existence and legal validity, as well as its ethical and legal perfection.

Keywords : Informed consent; ethical requirement; legal requirement; sanitary law.

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