ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the concept of informed consent in what is an everyday situation, analysing whether a healthcare professional (HCP) should explain all the risks and benefits of the tests. It focuses more on the ethical and pragmatic solutions and less on the law, in part as the law offers few answers, because such an unremarkable situation is yet to be legally contested. With increased medical knowledge comes a responsibility to use this judiciously and ensure the patient wants to go on a journey of discovery with the HCP. Much has been written about whether HIV testing requires special consent procedures, but this was rather more in the 1980s when the condition had very different implications. To begin, it is instructive to look at UK consent guidance from the medical regulator, an extract of which is reproduced in Appendix.
