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In many countries, people cannot give informed consent until they reach a certain age. The argument is that as a child the person might be incapable of comprehending the arguments and information, and thus could give consent, but even after the act of informing the child the consent would not be considered as based on being informed. The term age of consent is especially applied to consenting to sexual acts.

Some acts cannot legally take place because of a lack of informed consent, e.g. sexual acts, in other cases consent of legal parents or guardians of a child on its behalf is valid.

People must give informed consent before medical operations, and doctors may be sued for not giving their patients a full awareness of the risks associated with such things as medical trials of new medications and operations. In one British case, a doctor performing routine surgery on a woman noticed that she had cancerous tissue in her womb. He took the decision to remove the woman's womb; however, as she had not given informed consent for this operation, the doctor was judged by the General Medical Council to have acted negligently. The council said that the woman should have been informed of her condition, and allowed to make her own decision.

The question of whether informed consent needs to be formally given before sexual intercourse or other sexual activity, and whether this consent can be withdrawn at any time during the act, is an issue which is currently being discussed in the United States in regard to rapeFor the domesticated crop plant called "rape," see rapeseed. For responding to rape as a medical emergency, see sexual assault. For the former administrative division of Sussex, see Rape (district). Rape is a crime of engaging another person into sexual a and sexual assault legislation.

It may not be possible to give consent to certain activities in certain jurisdictions; see the Operation SpannerOperation Spanner was the name of an operation carried out by police in Manchester in the United Kingdom in 1987. The police had obtained a video which they believed depicted acts of sadistic torture, and they launched a murder investigation, convinced th case for an example of this in the UK.

Informed consent is also important in social researchSocial research is the branch of sociology that carries out research. Introduction Sociologists use many different methods of social research. Quantitative methods often rely on surveys and statistical analysis of already gathered data, while qualitative. For example in survey research, people need to give informed consent before they participate in the survey.

See also:

• Safe, sane and consensualSafe, sane and consensual SSC is one of several phrases used by a large section of the BDSM and sexual bondage communities to describe themselves and their philosophies who regard SSC to be a watchword for safety. The principles are that BDSM activities s
• Consensual crimeA consensual or victimless crime is a crime where all of those involved in the act give consent, and no third parties suffer as a direct result. Governments may justify making these acts into crimes because of indirect effects on third parties, or because
• MKULTRAMKULTRA (also known as MK-ULTRA was the code name for a CIA mind control research program lasting from the 1950s through the 1970s. Starting from 1964, the project was renamed to MKSEARCH . The project's goal was to produce a perfect truth drug for use in