Meaning & use
informed consent
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountablemedicallegal
Permission given by a patient or participant after they have been told the risks and details of a treatment or study.
Grammar: Uncountable noun; used with 'give', 'obtain', or 'require'.
Patterns
- give informed consent
- obtain informed consent
- informed consent for something
- without informed consent
Doctors must obtain informed consent before performing the surgery.
Participants signed a form to give informed consent for the study.
The treatment was stopped because the patient had not given informed consent.
Common combinations
- give informed consent
- She gave informed consent after the doctor explained the risks.
- obtain informed consent
- Researchers must obtain informed consent from every participant.
- informed consent form
- Please read the informed consent form carefully before signing.
- without informed consent
- Treating a patient without informed consent is against the law.
Synonyms and how they differ
- permission
- General word for being allowed to do something; 'informed consent' specifically means permission given after being told the facts and risks.
- authorization
- Often official approval, especially in legal or business settings; 'informed consent' focuses on the person's understanding of what they agree to.
- approval
- A more general word for agreeing to something; it does not necessarily involve being informed of risks.
Word family
Commonly confused: informed consent or consent?
informed consent vs consent
Consent is any agreement or permission. Informed consent is a specific legal and medical term that requires the person to be told the relevant facts first.
Practice
Before the experiment, the researchers had to ______ from all participants.
Choose one answer.
'Informed consent' is uncountable, so it does not take 'a' or a plural -s. 'Obtain informed consent' is the correct fixed phrase.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “informed consent”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.