[The development of Informed Consent]

At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century it was acknowledged that patients had the right to know and choose intervention themselves and informed consent must be gained before operation. In 1946, the Nuremberg Code was legalized and at the same time informed consent was preserved as a patient's right. In 1957, court of appeals California quoted 'informed consent' in medicine litigation in salgo's suitcase and the theory of informed consent was conceived. In June, 1964, the Helsinki Declaration was approved by the 18th World Medical Association Conference in Finland, in which claims about human experiments had been made. At the 29th World Medical Association Conference (1975), the Helsinki Declaration was greatly revised and the word 'informed consent' was put in the declaration. Informed Consent was placed into the declaration in 1981, the Declaration of Lisbon on the Rights of the Patient was approved at the 34th World Medical Association Conference and the scope of informed consent was enlarged to include all patients. The concept was introduced to China in the middle to late 1980s and was adopted by the Law of the Peoples Republic of China on Medical Practitioners. From then on it was applied and developed gradually in China.