Informed Decision-Making and Capabilities in Population-based Cancer Screening.

Informed decision-making (IDM) is considered an important ethical and legal requirement for population-based screening. Governments offering such screening have a duty to enable invitees to make informed decisions regarding participation. Various views exist on how to define and measure IDM in different screening programmes.

Recent insights into decision-making and their implications for informed consent.

Research from behavioural sciences shows that people reach decisions in a much less rational and well-considered way than was often assumed. The doctrine of informed consent, which is an important ethical principle and legal requirement in medical practice, is being challenged by these insights into decision-making and real-world choice behaviour. This article discusses the implications of recent insights of research on decision-making behaviour for the informed consent doctrine.

Competence assessment in minors, illustrated by the case of bariatric surgery for morbidly obese children.

Clinicians have to assess children's competence frequently. In order to do justice to children who are competent to make decisions and to protect incompetent children, valid assessment is essential. We address this issue by using bariatric surgery for morbidly obese minors as a case study.