An Ethical Reflection on Informed Consent in the Research and Application of Assisted Reproduction Technique / 中国医学伦理学

ABSTRACT

With the transformation of marketization of economy and legislation of society in recent 20 years in China,the traditional mechanism in which medical therapy is decided by patients' relatives and doctors has not been able to offer sufficient protection for the legal rights of patients.So the rights of informed consent and decision making have been transferred passively to the patients' side.But in the field of assisted reproduction technique(ART),informed consent has to face some specific and unique problems.Firstly,being fully informed is sharply against the privacy of his(her) spouse as reproduction involved both the couple and their families.Secondly,it is a question that whether a wife can make her freewill choice when she accepts an ART program,because of the pressures coming from her family,the society,and her low social status well.And thirdly,The ART has the characteristics of both clinical therapy and scientific research as it is imperfect and its protocols still need to be improved.Ethicists should focus on thiese challenges.In the aspect of ethics,the regulations established by government and occupational association are the safeguard of the commonweal of society and general rights and benefits,and the ethics review and informed consent offered the final protection for the patients.