Sheehan Mark
Oxford BRC Ethics Fellow and James Martin Research Fellow, Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, the Ethox Centre and the Institute for Science and Ethics, University of Oxford.
Public Health Ethics. 2011 Nov;4(3):226-235. doi: 10.1093/phe/phr020. Epub 2011 Aug 3.
In biobanks, a broader model of consent is often used and justified by a range of different strategies that make reference to the potential benefits brought by the research it will facilitate combined with the low level of risk involved (provided adequate measures are in place to protect privacy and confidentiality) or a questioning of the centrality of the notion of informed consent. Against this, it has been suggested that the lack of specific information about particular uses of the samples means that such consent cannot be fully autonomous and so is unethical. My answer to the title question is a definite 'yes'. Broad consent can be informed consent and is justified by appeal to the principle of respect for autonomy. Indeed, I will suggest that the distinction between the various kinds of consent is not a distinction between kinds of consent but between the kinds of choice a person makes. When an individual makes a choice (of any kind) it is important that they do so according to the standards of informed consent and consistent with the choice that they are making.
在生物样本库中，通常采用更宽泛的同意模式，并通过一系列不同策略使其合理化。这些策略提及了研究所带来的潜在益处，再加上所涉及的风险较低（前提是有适当措施保护隐私和机密性），或者质疑知情同意概念的核心地位。与此相反，有人认为，缺乏关于样本特定用途的具体信息意味着这种同意不可能是完全自主的，因此是不道德的。我对标题问题的回答是肯定的。宽泛同意可以是知情同意，并可依据尊重自主性原则而合理化。事实上，我将表明，各种同意之间的区别不是同意种类之间的区别，而是一个人所做选择种类之间的区别。当一个人做出（任何种类的）选择时，重要的是他们要按照知情同意的标准并与他们正在做出的选择保持一致来做出选择。
