Please join us for our next CBSSM 2013-2014 seminar:

"A Critical Public Health Ethics Analysis of Informed Consent for Newborn Screening: An Ontario Case Study"

Erica Sutton, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, CBSSM

Summary: Public health ethics (PHE) is a theoretical lens often used to analyze public health programs, practices, policies, and institutions. PHE strives to find a balance between achieving population health goals and promoting individual liberty. To reach this balance PHE scholars encourage the use of least restrictive alternatives. However, least restrictive approaches are often taken for granted as presumed goods and their ability to protect individual liberty and the common good is often assumed. I examine this presumption through an examination of informed consent – implied and express – for newborn screening (NBS) in Ontario. I conducted an exploratory qualitative case study to understand how 57 individuals involved in the lobbying, development, and implementation of expanded NBS in Ontario perceive consent policy for NBS. In this seminar I will present my interview findings on participants’ attitudes towards informed consent for NBS as contextualized within the broader PHE principles of least restrictive alternatives, effectiveness, autonomy, and social justice. Challenging informed consent as a presumed good and submitting the practice of consent to ethical scrutiny legitimates the concerns of those wary of consent, illuminates the perceived benefits and risks of consent, and creates an opportunity to mitigate risks before implementing or adjusting NBS consent policy.