![]() ![]() This places a medical professional in a tremendous dilemma. The circle of legal development in the area (i.e., consent) appears to be almost complete when the apex court in India recently ruled that, it is not just the ‘consent’ or ‘informed consent’ (as it is known worldwide) but it shall also be ‘prior informed consent’ generally barring some specific cases of emergency. The present paper examines the entire gamut of issues pertaining to consent from the point of view of the legal environment as it exists in India today. Several international conventions and declarations have similarly ratified the importance of obtaining consent from patients before testing and treatment. Similarly, the Declaration of Helsinki adopted by the World Medical Association in 1964 emphasizes the importance of obtaining freely given informed consent for medical research by adequately informing the subjects of the aims, methods, anticipated benefits, potential hazards, and discomforts that the study may entail. The code makes it mandatory to obtain voluntary and informed consent of human subjects. The Nuremberg Code was adopted immediately after World War II in response to medical and experimental atrocities committed by the German Nazi regime. The earliest expression of this fundamental principle, based on autonomy, is found in the Nuremberg Code of 1947. No doubt this raises many ethical debates and falls at the heart of medical law today. It is well known that the patient must give valid consent to medical treatment and it is his prerogative to refuse treatment even if the said treatment will save his or her life. The element of consent is one of the critical issues in the area of medical treatment today.
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