Informed consent and ART

caregiver-medical-consent-form

CISoR members, Sally Sheldon (KLS), Darren Griffin (Biosciences), Ellie Lee and Jan Macvarish (SSPSSR) are undertaking exploratory research into informed consent practices in assisted reproduction. The Wellcome Trust has awarded Sheldon a small grant (£4,242) to support a pilot study that will potentially laying the groundwork for a larger project. The work takes its starting point from the fact that infertility treatment services have sometimes been subject to accusations that profit has been prioritised over patient benefit, with patients encouraged to undergo costly, unnecessary, experimental treatments which are unlikely to succeed. However, there is little high quality analysis that allows for an objective assessment of the merits of such claims and little research exploring patients’ experience of informed consent in this area. The larger project will potentially aim to fill that gap.