Abstract

This issue’s “Legal Briefing” column covers legal developments pertaining to informed consent. Not only has this topic been the subject of recent articles in this journal, but it also been the subject of numerous public and professional discussions over the past several months.Legal developments concerning informed consent can be usefully grouped into nine categories: 1. General disclosure standards in the clinical context2. Shared decision making3. Staturorily mandated abortion disclosures4. Staturorily mandated end-of-life counseling5. Other staturorily mandated subject-specific disclosures6. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) labeling and federal pre-emption of state informed consent law7. Relaxed informed consent for HIV testing8. General disclosure standards in the research context9. Issues on the horizon.