ABSTRACT
Introduction: Throughout history, the relationship between the doctor and the patient has undergone many changes. Currently, the health professional must propose the medical plan, with its risks and benefits, request authorization to attend emergencies and contingencies that arise, so that the patient accepts or rejects them. To guarantee this, the emergence of informed consent, a transcendent process and document in the doctor-patient relationship was necessary and in the current circumstances in which humanity lives, imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, it cannot be relegated. Objectives: Update for pandemic conditions, informed consent in its spheres, medical, legal and bioethical. Development: A bibliographic review was carried out in the Ebsco, Pubmed and SciELO databases, in Spanish and English. The descriptor “informed consent” was used together with “COVID-19”. Informed consent is analyzed as a legal and ethical requirement in the doctor-patient relationship in usual situations and during the current pandemic. Conclusions: Informed consent is a legal and ethical requirement in the doctor-patient relationship in any circumstance and including the difficult conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2021, Editorial Ciencias Medicas. All rights reserved.