Informed Consent

What is informed consent?

Informed consent "means that a physician (or other medical provider) must tell a patient all of the potential benefits, risks, and alternatives involved in any surgical procedure, medical procedure, or other course of treatment, and must obtain the patient's written consent to proceed." (from Findlaw for the Public)

Is informed consent required for ethical reasons?
Yes.  Every professional medical organization has a ethical policy requiring informed consent before medical intervention.

The American Medical Association says,

Informed consent is more than simply getting a patient to sign a written consent form. It is a process of communication between a patient and physician that results in the patient's authorization or agreement to undergo a specific medical intervention...This communications process, or a variation thereof, is both an ethical obligation and a legal requirement spelled out in statutes and case law in all 50 states.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says,

"Many now regard traditional practices based on the theory that 'doctor knows best' as unacceptably paternalistic. Society recognizes that patients or their surrogates have a right to decide, in consultation with their physicians, which proposed medical interventions they will or will not accept."

Is informed consent required by law?

Since 1994, federal law requires that Vaccine Information Statements written by the CDC to be given to all parents before vaccination.  West Virginia law also requires that parents be given information before vaccinating.

These information sheets inform parents of the risks and benefits of vaccinations so that parents may give informed consent to accepting these risks.  There would be no point to telling parents about vaccine risks if they are forced to accept them, whether they agree or not.  The entire information process would be irrelevant, if it does not come with voluntary consent.

Is informed consent required even if the intervention is in the interest of public health?

The awareness of the need for informed consent arose largely from the Nuremberg trials.  Nazi medical doctors claimed that their human experiments did not require informed consent because results would benefit many people.  The Nuremberg Code was written to prevent further human experimentation without informed consent.

Bioethicist Arthur Caplan argues, "The Nuremberg Code explicitly rejects the moral argument that the creation of benefits for many justifies the sacrifice of the few. Every experiment, no matter how important or valuable, requires the express voluntary consent of the individual. The right of individuals to control their bodies trumps the interest of others in obtaining knowledge or benefits from them."

Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center writes,

In any war, whether it be a war using humans armed with guns in an attempt to defeat other humans, or a war using humans injected with vaccines in an attempt to eliminate microorganisms, it is easy for those in charge to view the instruments of that war - human beings - as objects and a means to an end. But the great moral tradition of Judeo-Christian western thought does not support this dangerous concept. 

Philosopher Hans Jonas...reminds us that a state may have the right to ask an individual to volunteer to die for what the state has defined as the common good but rarely, if ever, does a state have the moral authority to command it.

How can the vaccination program be considered an experiment?

Medical authorities are still learning that immunities do not last as long as they thought, or that children need more doses of the vaccine than previously believed.   There have been no long-term studies for many of these vaccines.  There are side effects that scientists still have not discovered, and many questions that are still unanswered on how exactly immunity works.  It is currently unknown why or how some children die from vaccines and which children exactly are at risk for reacting poorly.  Without this information, every vaccine is an experiment on the child.

Although mass vaccination can potentially benefit many people, it is essential that all participants in this experiment give voluntary informed consent. The government would be violating the Nuremberg Code to force parents to participate in the vaccination experiment against their wills.