Informed Consent Out of Context |
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Authors: | Sven Ove Hansson |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Philosophy and the History of Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 78, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden |
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Abstract: | Several attempts have been made to transfer the concept of informed consent from medical and research ethics to dealing with
affected groups in other areas such as engineering, land use planning, and business management. It is argued that these attempts
are unsuccessful since the concept of informed consent is inadequate for situations in which groups of affected persons are
dealt with collectively (rather than individually, as in clinical medicine). There are several reasons for this. The affected
groups from which informed consent is sought cannot be identified with sufficient precision. Informed consent is associated
with individual veto power, but it does not appear realistic to give veto power to all individuals who are affected for instance
by an engineering project. Most importantly, the concept of informed consent puts focus on the public’s acceptance of ready-made
proposals rather than on its participation in the decision-making process as a whole, which includes the development of alternatives
for the decision. Therefore, the concept of informed consent is not applicable to a company’s relations with groups and collectives.
It may, however, be applicable to a company’s relations with individual persons such as customers and employees. |
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Keywords: | informed consent stakeholder veto engineering ethics planning democracy participation |
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