Ethical debate: Informed consent in medical research • Informed consent---a response to recent correspondence • Changing the BMJ's position on informed consent would be counterproductive • Informed consent---a publisher's duty • Trial subjects must be fully involved in design and approval of trials • Studies that do not have informed consent from participants should not be published

BMJ 1998;316:1000-1005 ( 28 March )

Education and debate

Ethical debate

Informed consent in medical research

Informed consent $---$ a response to recent correspondence

Changing the BMJ's position on informed consent would be counterproductive

Informed consent $---$ a publisher's duty

Trial subjects must be fully involved in design and approval of trials

Studies that do not have informed consent from participants should not be published

Informed consent in medical research

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In the issue of 12 April 1997 the BMJ invited comment on the acceptable limits of informed consent in medical studies. Inview of the large correspondence this generated, we invited thetwo original commentators, Len Doyal and Jeffrey Tobias, to revisitthe subject. We also invited comments from three people who arenot doctors, researchers, or medical ethicists: two of them representthe views of patients and potential patients

Editorial by Smith and Personal views pp 1026-7

Len Doyal, professor of medical ethics.

St Bartholomew's and The Royal London Hospital School of Medicine and Dentistry, London E1 2AD

The publication of the debate between myself and Jeffrey Tobias about the acceptable limits of informed consent in medicalresearch has generated an immense and varied number of lettersto the BMJ.^1-4 This in itself is gratifying, whether or not correspondentsagree with my arguments. It provides ample evidence of widespreadand serious deliberation about the moral boundaries of the rightsof participants in research.

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Many correspondents either explicitly or implicitly endorse the hard line that I take in my paper . . . [Full text of this article]

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