When we think about informed consent, we think about a signature on a piece of paper. In this capsule, we are going to talk about what informed consent really is. This subject has been debated at a great length and today, there are various procedures and models that have been developped in order to preserve this principle. This capsule provides an explanation of the basic elements namely:

a) data subjects or legal representative that provides the authorisation of consent

b) a specific thing that is being consented to

c) specific agent(s) to whom the consent is given

The capsule explores the characteristics of each of them as well as their own separate purposes.