Events for February 2012

Written informed consent remains the gold standard and the preferred method for potential participants to indicate their voluntary informed agreement to participate in research. There are however alternatives, some sanctioned by guidelines such as the NHMRCs National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research 2007, others are "extensions" or adaptations of other forms or processes for giving consent. Each of these alternatives consent processes are problematic in different ways but also more generally in that written consent is the usual practice not only in the context of research. This paper examine broadly the alternatives to active written consent focussing what is it about these processes that render these processes less than satisfactory from an ethical perspective.