Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2001

Keywords

Health Law and Policy, parental consent to genetic and metabolic tests, newborn screening, parental consent, provincial/territorial newborn screening programs

Abstract

In this paper, we provide some background on the history of newborn screening and the legal context within which questions regarding consent must be answered, and then turn to the various arguments that can be made for and against the current approach to parental consent to genetic and metabolic tests administered as part of provincial/territorial newborn screening programs. In the end, we conclude that either practice should be changed to align it with current law such that explicit parental consent is sought for the established tests, or that advocates for maintaining current practices should lobby for legislation permitting newborn screening in the absence of explicit parental consent. The approach to the issue of consent to the new tests can then be built upon a legally defensible foundation.

Comments

From the Selected Works of Sheila Wildeman.

Publication Abbreviation

HLJ

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