title: Voluntary consent: why a value-neutral concept won't work.
abstract: Some maintain that voluntariness is a value-neutral concept. On that view, someone acts involuntarily if subject to a controlling influence or has no acceptable alternatives. I argue that a value-neutral conception of voluntariness cannot explain when and why consent is invalid and that we need a moralized account of voluntariness. On that view, most concerns about the voluntariness of consent to participate in research are not well founded.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioethics, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. Wertheimera@cc.nih.gov
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wertheimer
mesh_terms: D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000941:ethics* / Q000523:psychology*; D009014:Morals; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D010686:Philosophy, Medical; D035842:Research Subjects / Q000523:psychology*