TY - JOUR
T1 - Informed Consent in Asymmetrical Relationships: An Investigation into Relational Factors That Influence Room for Reflection
AU - Spruit, Shannon
AU - van de Poel, Ibo
AU - Doorn, Neelke
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - In recent years, informed consent has been suggested as a way to deal with risks posed by engineered nanomaterials. We argue that while we can learn from experiences with informed consent in treatment and research contexts, we should be aware that informedconsent traditionally pertains to certain features of the relationships between doctors and patients and researchers and research participants, rather than those between producers and consumers and employers and employees, which are more prominent in the case of engineered nanomaterials. To better understand these differences, we identify three major relational factors that influence whether valid informed consent is obtainable, namely dependency, personal proximity, and existence ofshared interests. We show that each type of relationship offers different opportunities for reflection and therefore poses distinct challenges for obtaining valid informed consent. Our analysis offers a systematic understanding of the possibilities for attaining informed consent in thecontext of nanomaterial risks and makes clear that measuresor regulations to improve the obtainment of informed consent should be attuned to the specific interpersonal relations to which it is supposed to apply.
AB - In recent years, informed consent has been suggested as a way to deal with risks posed by engineered nanomaterials. We argue that while we can learn from experiences with informed consent in treatment and research contexts, we should be aware that informedconsent traditionally pertains to certain features of the relationships between doctors and patients and researchers and research participants, rather than those between producers and consumers and employers and employees, which are more prominent in the case of engineered nanomaterials. To better understand these differences, we identify three major relational factors that influence whether valid informed consent is obtainable, namely dependency, personal proximity, and existence ofshared interests. We show that each type of relationship offers different opportunities for reflection and therefore poses distinct challenges for obtaining valid informed consent. Our analysis offers a systematic understanding of the possibilities for attaining informed consent in thecontext of nanomaterial risks and makes clear that measuresor regulations to improve the obtainment of informed consent should be attuned to the specific interpersonal relations to which it is supposed to apply.
KW - Informed consent
KW - Nanomaterial risks
KW - Relational autonomy
KW - Roomfor reflection
KW - Interpersonal relationships
UR - http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9393a654-9701-4484-aa6e-9e99790ba349
U2 - 10.1007/s11569-016-0262-5
DO - 10.1007/s11569-016-0262-5
M3 - Article
SN - 1871-4757
VL - 10
JO - NanoEthics: ethics for technologies that converge at the nanoscale
JF - NanoEthics: ethics for technologies that converge at the nanoscale
IS - 2
ER -