Principles of informed consent in medicine

Introduction: Use of informed medical consent prior to therapy is not a new concept and has been performed for a long time. Yet in recent years it has acquired a critical importance due to the widely increased complexity of medical procedures. Informing the patient about his chances of benefiting from a given therapeutic procedure and the likelihood of its antecedent risks and side effects is an inseparable and essential component of standard patient management. An informed consent will be meaningless without such data. Informed consent plays key roles in both medical ethics and patient rights, and its proper application prior to diagnostic or therapeutic procedures typically will yield better results. It is therefore imperative that the patient or his legal guardian or surrogate fully understand and approve the therapy under consideration. Understanding and approving are equally important in this process and when properly applied in an ethical manner, can hasten the process of patient recovery. Medical personnel are thus obliged to fully reveal the patients all information about their illness as well as the therapeutic options available to them. Failure to do so will encumber legal ramifications