Issues for informed consent

Informed consent from a cytapheresis donor is the culmination of a complex decision making process during which the blood collecting agency presents sufficient information to enable the donor to make a free choice whether or not to donate. The institution bears the responsibility for providing all information relevant to the donor's decision, whether favorable or unfavorable. At no other stage of its contact with the donor can a collecting agency discharge its public trust more meaningfully. Thus, informed consent is not only the greatest altruistic expression from the unrelated volunteer donor, or the expression of deepest commitment to the family for the related donor, it is also the fullest expression of the value which the institute places on the autonomy of the donor. The foundation upon which the concept of informed consent rests has been laid by law, medicine, government, ethics, and religion. Although the procedures accompanying the informed consent process appear bureaucratic, they should be viewed as the components of a remarkable, dynamic process. The consent of a donor to undergo cytapheresis is an eloquent statement of the value he or she places on the importance of another human being's life.