Informed Consent in Transfusion Medicine: An Ethical Obligation Or a Legal Compulsion to Avert Liabilities for Negligence to the Health Care Provider

Abstract

Blood transfusion is oftentimes life-saving but associated with risks which ought to be disclosed by the health care provider as an ethical obligation and legal requirement. The practice of informed consent to transfusion medicine is quite new and few studies have comprehensively x-rayed its historical, ethical and legal implications with an in depth consideration of professional negligence using decided cases by the adversarial and arbitration systems. PubMed, PubMed Central, Google Scholar, African Journal on Line (AJOL) electronic databases were searched using combined keywords like; “Blood transfusion and informed consent” “informed choice to transfusion medicine practice”, “consent in transfusion medicine”, “health care giver and consent to transfusion therapy”, “transfusion consent and the health care seeker”, “liability and informed consent to transfusion” and “contemporary issues in medical negligence”. Relatedly, printed materials were considered. The 91 studies that met the inclusion criteria were considered with highlights showing that, informed consent to medical treatment generally is an age long practice running from roman civilization to the present but its advocated practice in transfusion medicine a recent event. The practice is also generally low in comparison with informed consent taken for other treatments in similar settings. The consequences of dereliction including infamous conduct amongst professionals or negligence with direct and vicarious liabilities in adversary systems has been set in precedent judgments. These in addition to the present day patient-centered care model as global best practice and quality in health care delivery is compelling for health care providers to imbibe the practice not as a form of defensive medicine but a repertoire to quality and responsive Medicare service.