Informed Consent

• Informed consent is a state in which someone giving their consent for something over which he has rights does so with all the relevant information and of his own free will. When a person gives informed consent, he is doing so with all the legally required cognitive capacities.
  
  

Relation to Crime

• Sometimes informed consent can make an otherwise criminal activity completely legal. For example, it is illegal for someone to stab at someone's chest with a knife, but if he gives informed consent to a surgeon to perform surgery on him, the surgery does not constitute a crime.
  
  

Controversial Issues

• For some controversial issues, whether or not informed consent can make an otherwise illegal action legal is a matter of hot debate. Take assisted suicide, for example. Can someone give informed consent to end his own life? Some argue that people should be allowed to do so on grounds that they should have control over whether or not they live or die. Others argue that it should not be allowed on grounds that such a person could not possibly be in his right mind.