Jul 23, 2026 · 53 min · 12 segments
In the first episode of this new ethics and law podcast series, Dr Paul McConnell is joined by healthcare law expert Dr Anna Nelson to explore one of the most fundamental principles in healthcare…
Anna NelsonGuest
Paul McConnellHost
The big thing we should actually start with is trying to come up with a, a good definition of what consent is.
It sort of seems obvious, and sometimes when we're asked to obtain it, but from you looking in as a legal person, what is it?
I think that's actually a surprisingly big question, one of those things that when you scratch the surface, you find it hard to answer.
But to me, consent is an important legal tool which in theory at least operates to allow somebody to protect their autonomy and bodily integrity and associated dignity.
It's a way of granting permission for somebody to interfere often with the physical body in the medical case.
As somebody once wrote, I think it was, it makes the impermissible permissive-
We often hear when we're at work, somebody said, "Has the patient been consented yet?" Or, "Consent's been achieved." It makes it sound like a sort of point event.
No, and you've picked up on what might be my biggest bugbear in all of healthcare language.
To me, consent is an active and ongoing process, but it's also not something that is done to the patient.
The patient or the pregnant person or whoever has the right to give or withhold consent.
And the other thing that comes up quite often is people say, "Is the consent form valid?" So we'll dispense with some sort of mysteries there.
Absolutely not, no. Consents form can provide evidence that consent has been obtained, but it is not necessarily proof that that, that consent is valid.
And actually, in many circumstances, we can have valid consent without the consent form.
The big thing we should actually start with is trying to come up with a, a good definition of what consent is.
It sort of seems obvious, and sometimes when we're asked to obtain it, but from you looking in as a legal person, what is it?
I think that's actually a surprisingly big question, one of those things that when you scratch the surface, you find it hard to answer.
But to me, consent is an important legal tool which in theory at least operates to allow somebody to protect their autonomy and bodily integrity and associated dignity.
It's a way of granting permission for somebody to interfere often with the physical body in the medical case.
As somebody once wrote, I think it was, it makes the impermissible permissive-
We often hear when we're at work, somebody said, "Has the patient been consented yet?" Or, "Consent's been achieved." It makes it sound like a sort of point event.
No, and you've picked up on what might be my biggest bugbear in all of healthcare language.
To me, consent is an active and ongoing process, but it's also not something that is done to the patient.
The patient or the pregnant person or whoever has the right to give or withhold consent.
And the other thing that comes up quite often is people say, "Is the consent form valid?" So we'll dispense with some sort of mysteries there.
Absolutely not, no. Consents form can provide evidence that consent has been obtained, but it is not necessarily proof that that, that consent is valid.
And actually, in many circumstances, we can have valid consent without the consent form.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
