Informed consent and living wills: comparative analysis of the legislation in Latin America.

Objectives: To describe how informed consent (IC) and living wills (LW) are legally established in Latin American countries in relation to health care and research, and to analyse that from bioethics.

Methods: A comparative analysis of the current regulations of the 21 Latin American countries regarding CI and LW was carried out. Data extraction reports were prepared before starting the research process for each country.