title: Bioethics and power: Informed consent procedures in post-socialist Latvia.
abstract: This paper explores two lines of development in the donor consent procedures in post-Soviet Latvia. The paper is based on secondary analysis of interview, focus group discussion data, and media and legal text material collected throughout three previously conducted research projects on organ transplantation, population genome project and xenotransplantation focusing on the historical development of the issues of donor consent across these three fields of medical technologies. The paper argues that the quality of consent depends not as much on political and legal change per se as on the strengthening of the position of both medical specialists and donors, facilitating bonds between the two.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Bioethics and Biosafety, Faculty of Humanities, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia. Electronic address: aivita.putnina@lu.lv.
authors.forename: Aivita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Putniņa
mesh_terms: D017144:Focus Groups; D016045:Human Genome Project; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D007844:Latvia; D016377:Organ Transplantation; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012950:Socialism; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous
keywords: Bioethics; Donors; Genome research; Informed consent; Latvia; Organ transplantation; Post-socialism