Consent and protection of adults and children: common and peculiar dilemmas in developing countries

Abstract

The present work is a review of recent articles published in Brazilian and international medical journals on the informed consent topic. It introduces the historical aspects and the global dimension of judicial and legal issues, stating the ethical importance of the topic at hand. Next, it pinpoints some peculiarities of using informed consent with the pediatric patient arguing the necessity to respect the child and adolescent’s autonomy. It develops a bioethical analysis of this practice in neonatal intensive care units in developing countries, where, besides the patient’s vulnerability - mostly premature babies - other important aspects, such as medical, educational, cultural, religious, social, economic, etc also come into play. It concludes by highlighting the complexity of this procedure and it alerts that its use alone does not effectively ensure patients’ protection and respect, be them involved or not in a research protocol.