Basic Norms of Bioethics: Informed Consent in UNESCO Bioethics Declarations

Beširević, Violeta (2008) Basic Norms of Bioethics: Informed Consent in UNESCO Bioethics Declarations. The Annals of the Faculty of Law in Belgrade : journal of legal and social sciences, 56 (3). pp. 257-265. ISSN 1452-6557

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to assess the informed consent requirements in the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights, the International Declaration on Human Genetic Data and the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. These requirements represent recent international attempts to make informed consent central to ethically and legally acceptable medical and research practices. The author shows that the given standards are minimal and that the drafters failed to make consent and consenting rigorous and a fully specific. Yet, while some national laws have gone beyond these standards, the author reminds that in most countries legislation addressing the social implications of biotechnological developments is either unsystematic or nonexistent. Hence, although not fully determined and included in legally non-binding instruments, the authoritative statements concerning informed consent in the UNESCO declarations represent a very helpful what-to-do list. Moreover, the declarations are the most thorough global initiative thus far to consider human rights implications of biomedical sciences and as such, symbolize an important step in protecting human rights in the area of bioethics.

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