Which term refers to permission granted with full knowledge of potential risks and benefits?

• A. General (Implied) Consent
• B. Informed Consent
• C. Duty
• D. Felony

Answer: (B)

Informed consent is permission given by a patient after being fully informed about a proposed intervention’s risks, benefits, and alternatives, and after demonstrating understanding and voluntary agreement. This concept matters because it honors patient autonomy—the right to make decisions about one’s own body when the person understands what is involved. For consent to be valid, the patient must have decision-making capacity, receive adequate information, understand it, and agree without coercion. Among the options, this term uniquely encompasses knowledge of potential outcomes. General (implied) consent covers routine care and doesn’t require detailed disclosure about risks and alternatives; it can be assumed in some settings but isn’t the same as fully informed consent. Duty refers to an obligation to act or refrain from acting, not the physician-patient permission process. Felony is a crime and unrelated to medical consent. In practice, informed consent should address the nature of the procedure, expected benefits, possible risks and complications, alternatives (including no treatment), and the consequences of declining treatment, and it may be oral or written depending on the situation.