Consenso informato. Una riflessione filosofico giuridica sul tema. Informed Consent. Some Philosophical-Legal Concerns

The paper frames the issue from the philosophy of law’s viewpoint to determine the current "state of health" of informed consent starting from some critical areas (like the physician-patient relationship, illnesses with poor prognosis and the end-of life medical care, genetics, clinical research and practice) and from its legal sources (like judicial decisions). The author’s claim is that informed consent does not need to be weakened in this historical period in order to strenghten solidarity and trust to achieve common goals for all human beings. Instead, she aims at proving that trust and solidarity should be placed in a participatory and cooperative scenario which should be fed by the respect, at the highest levels, of individual self-determination, and therefore of informed consent.