title: The impossibility of informed consent?
abstract: The problematic nature of informed consent to medical treatment and research, and its relation to autonomy, trust and clinical practice, has been addressed on many occasions and from a variety of ethical perspectives in the pages of the Journal of Medical Ethics. This paper gives an account of how discussion of these issues has developed and changed, by describing a number of significant contributions to these debates which provide examples of 'doing good medical ethics' over the 40 years of the Journal's publication.
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Boyd
mesh_terms: D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D026684:Personal Autonomy
keywords: Applied and Professional Ethics; Autonomy; Ethics; Informed Consent; Philosophical Ethics