The Ethics of Consent: An Introduction

We borrow and lend possessions, sign up to social networking sites, agree to sexual advances, and undergo medical procedures―all by giving consent. Without consent, these acts would be rights violations. With it, they can be made permissible. Consequently, questions about consent are controversial and ethically fraught.

The Ethics of Consent is a clear and much-needed introduction to this fundamental topic. In Part I, the authors examine conceptual and theoretical questions surrounding consent, providing an accessible overview of topics such as validity, competence, the informational requirements for consent, coercion, manipulation, and deception. In Part II they examine consent to medical care, clinical research, online data use, sex, and government.

The book addresses important and controversial subjects, including the involuntary treatment of patients in healthcare, the payment of healthy volunteers in research, the use of data-collecting technology in public education, the ethics of intoxicated sex, and the authority of referendums.

An excellent starting point for anyone studying the ethics of consent, this book will be valuable for those working in philosophy, applied ethics and philosophy of law, as well as related disciplines such as medicine, public policy, and gender studies.

Joseph Millum is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at St. Andrews University, UK.

Danielle Bromwich is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Leeds, UK.