Key things to consider
- Consent is your agreement for treatment, care, procedures, activities, events, actions, and other things that you agree to.
- To give informed consent, you need to be given enough information about your options to make the right decision for you and your wellbeing.
- For legal consent you should have emotional and developmental capacity, as well as the necessary control over yourself to voluntarily give consent. This includes having enough information about all your options to make an informed choice.
- If you don’t have legal capacity, there are a number of ways to make decisions in your stead or on your behalf. However, those decisions should still incorporate your wishes, needs, wellbeing, and autonomy as much as reasonable for the situation.
- You can have help from an interpreter, technology or devices, a friend, or a family member to help you understand what is happening or being decided, and to assist in make an informed decision.
- Decision makers can sometimes be found or appointed to consent on your behalf.
- Decisions can be established while you have reasonable capacity, and when you are best able to communicate your wishes and needs for yourself and the situation.
- A person or group may be able to weigh the consequences, benefits and challenges, that apply to you and your situation. They can sometimes improve decisions by finding ways to communicate information to you and from you, about the situation, information, wellbeing, and your wants and needs. Consent should always occur while avoiding traumatizing, abusive, coercive, and controlling factors.
What is consent?
Consent is very important to autonomy, to your independence. It involves your voluntary agreement and choices about things like treatment, boundaries, touch, care, procedures, activities, events, actions, and other things that you willingly accept and agree to. This can include tests, medicines, therapy, goals, objectives, treatments or procedures, standards, provisions, events, activities, games, discussions, questions, behaviors, collection of information and data, use of your information, and other actions you agree to.
What is informed consent?
Consent should be informed and knowledgeable. This means you need to be given enough information about your options to make informed, knowledgeable decisions about your life, entertainment, work, health, welfare, wellbeing, legal matters and other interactions that involve you and your life. This can include things involving, your family, friends, loved ones, and others in your life. Keep in mind that this also may include the need for others to have informed consent as well. People need complete, sound information, that is understandable enough to weigh the benefits and challenges of various options that need to be consented to.
What are the legal requirements for informed consent?
To give informed consent you should:
- have legal capacity to consent
- give your consent voluntary (no one should force you or push you to the decision)
- be given enough information about your condition and your options, including the benefits, risks, and likely outcomes of each choice
- have the opportunity to discuss your thoughts, ask questions, and get reasonable answers in communication that you can understand
What is legal capacity?
Legal capacity means that you can:
- understand and retain the facts involved in your situation
- understand your options
- understand the potential consequences of each option
- weigh the potential benefits, disadvantages and consequences of each option
- communicate your decision to the proper authority (doctor, lawyer, judge, teacher, officer or other authority involved)
What should be explained to me before I consent?
Before you give your consent, make sure:
- each of the choices available to you are explained
- that any risks, and the likelihood of those risks, are explained
- you understand the benefits, challenges, and likely outcomes
- you understand the purpose of the action you are consenting to
If you are not sure at any stage, be sure to ask what you are unsure about. Plus, informed consent might look different for different people. Before you give informed consent, you may need help from:
- an interpreter if English is not your first language
- literature written in a way you understand
- visual or audio options, as well as alternative formats for seeing or hearing challenges
- simple guides or step by step instruction
- drawings, charts, tables and other graphics
- devices or technology to help in your communication style
- a friend, family member, or support person to discuss options with
How do I give informed consent?
You can give informed consent verbally or in writing. You can also use body language, signs or symbols, or in some cases consent can be implied, as long as it is clear. If it is unclear, you or the person you are consenting to are unsure then you may need to find ways to clarify consent.
The type of consent you give will depend on what you are consenting to. For example, by allowing your doctor to examine you, you imply consent to the physical examination. For a legal document you signing, initialing, or answering certain questions may show consent. Some subscriptions and sales may assume consent based on previous sales, putting a credit card on file, or filling out a contract. When you are with a person and they wish to get close to you, be intimate or touch you, an implied consent could include shaking your head yes, but you need to be careful with this. Not all implied signs are clear. A person can nod, but still be unsure, they can smile while still not feeling right about something. So it is often best to ensure a more expressive, positive, clear sign of consent.
Can I change my mind?
Yes, even if you have already given consent, in most cases you can change your mind and withdraw or take back consent. If you are unsure, it is alright to wait or cancel until you feel ready for such a decision. It is also alright if you never feel alright with certain decisions. Your consent is about you making your own choices, over your own autonomy, based on what you know, what you need and what you want, and those wants, needs, and information can change. If you do change your mind or are not sure, let people involved know. Be clear, inform the people involved if you change your mind, if you have more questions, if you have doubts about how things will go. If you are uncomfortable talking about it, try asking someone else to do the talking, just make sure your wishes and doubts are understood. Make sure consent is completely withdrawn.
There are some cases where it is harder to withdraw consent, like if you are on a plane, it is unlikely the flight could be stopped when they have left the gate. Certain legal contracts are sometimes difficult to cancel once they are signed. An operation is hard to stop once started. Even in those situations, if you change your mind you can still try to have them stop, and maybe they will, maybe they won’t. Try if you can, and keep pushing if they don’t want to stop, ask what you would need to do to have the procedure, action, contract or whatever it is stopped, changed, cancelled, etc.
