The GOS International Paediatric Bioethics Lectures – Forms of Consent and Nudging in Healthcare – Dr Farrah Raza, Stipendiary Lecturer in Public Law at Pembroke College, University of Oxford
When: Wed 2025-09-17 16:00 – 17:00
Where: https://gosh.zoom.us/j/68792108512
Please join us for session two of the GOS Paediatric Bioethics Centre’s International Paediatric Bioethics Lectures. On 17th September at 16:00, we will have the pleasure of being joined online by Dr Farrah Raza, Stipendiary Lecturer in Public Law at Pembroke College, University of Oxford who will be talking to us about ‘Forms of Consent and Nudging in Healthcare’. Please view the attached adverts for more details. Thank you to those who joined us on 20th August for Anna D. Goff’s (PhD, HEC-C, Clinical Ethics Fellow) lecture ‘Turning Lemons into Lemonade: Studying the Emotional Impact of Clinical Ethics Consultation’.
17th September 2025: The GOS International Paediatric Bioethics Lectures – Forms of Consent and Nudging in Healthcare – Dr Farrah Raza, Stipendiary Lecturer in Public Law at Pembroke College, University of Oxford 2025
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://gosh.zoom.us/j/68792108512
Session outline: Forms of Consent and Nudging in Healthcare:
This session will assess different forms of consent before focussing on the concept of ‘nudging’. We will look at the legal requirements of different forms of consent and various ethical challenges. By focussing on ‘nudging’, we will discuss when influencing patient choice and consent might be legitimate and where it might be considered to fall short of a patient giving informed consent.
Part I: Forms of Consent (10-15 mins)
- Explicit consent: is where there is permission that is clearly communicated by the patient.
- Implied consent: is where consent is understood to be given because either the patient does not object to the act and/or the context supports the assumption of consent.
- Presumed consent: is an assumption in favour of consent and that can be rebutted.
- Proxy consent: is where a representative appointed by the patient ‘stands in’ for the patient and give consent on their behalf where they lack capacity or opportunity to give consent.
Part II: Nudging (25 mins)
- Nudging: refers to the use of different strategies to influence patient choice or consent. For those in favour of nudging, it is not inherently unethical to seek to influence choices and decisions if patients have the choice to decide. For others, nudging undermines personal autonomy and, in some cases, amounts to manipulation. Nudging is employed in various sectors, but its use in healthcare is subject to debate and scrutiny because of the vulnerability of patients. We will discuss specific case studies to test out the different arguments about the legitimacy of nudging.
- Does ‘nudging’ always undermine patient autonomy? If not, what forms of nudging are potentially legitimate?
Part III: Discussion (15-20 mins)
Reading
- Thomas Ploug & Søren Holm (2015) Doctors, Patients, and Nudging in the Clinical Context—Four Views on Nudging and Informed Consent, The American Journal of Bioethics, 15:10, 28-38.
- Raza, F., Herring, J., Neuberger, J., Quiroga, I., Engelmann, C., Ryder, E., & Berg, T. (2025). Strong or Weak Consent in Medical Law? Identifying the Values Protected in Transplantation Medicine in Europe. European Journal of Health Law, 32(3), 281-307.
(Access to the reading material can be requested by email hebe.weir@gosh.nhs.net if you do not have permissions).
Hebe Weir (GOSH ETHICS) is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://gosh.zoom.us/j/68792108512
Meeting ID: 687 9210 8512
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