THE LAW ON INFORMED CONSENT IN MEDICAL PROCEDURES IN NIGERIA: ORGAN AND TISSUE TRANSPLANT IN FOCUS

Abstract

During medical procedures, the law, generally, mandate medical personnel to seek and get the consent of patients before proceeding with any medical treatment. The rule on informed consent, simply put, entails health professionals properly informing patients, to their understanding, about any medical treatment to be administered to such patient and getting approval before proceeding with such treatment. This basically aligns with the medical and legal positions that recognize the autonomy of a patient and recognizes such patient’s right to either accept or reject any medical treatment and also the right to participate in every decision regarding the patient’s medical treatment. The informed consent rule allows some exceptions which include emergency cases where it would be fatal to insist on seeking and getting a patient’s consent to a lifesaving medical intervention. The present research is focused reviewing the current state of the law with respect to informed consent in transplant procedures in Nigeria to determine its adequacy. It is recommended inter alia that the National Health Act be amended to specifically mandate health personnel to seek and get the informed consent of parties to transplant procedures – where possible – to prevent the legal implications of doing otherwise. Also, medical personnel should be trained continually to practice informed consent when handling patients that come to them for any form of medical treatment.