#consent

Drugs and medical technology can be enormously beneficial when used to take care of real complications, but too often they are abused when applied to women birthing normally. These women are thus subjected to unnecessary risks. The key to this problem is informed consent, an ideal too seldom realized. Informed consent means that no woman during pregnancy or labor should ever be deceived into thinking that any drug or procedure (Demerol, Seconal, spinals, caudals, epidurals, paracervical block, etc.) is guaranteed safe. Not only are there no guaranteed safe drugs, but many of them have well-known, recognized side effects and potential side effects. Informed consent should mean that no woman would ever hear such falsehoods as, “This is harmless,” or, “I only give it in such a small dose that it can’t affect the baby,” or, “This is just a local and won’t reach the baby. ↗

— Susan McCutcheon

#epidural #informed-consent #natural-birth #nature

I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate. ↗

— John Adams

#children #consented #fate #give #house

Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice. ↗

— Will Durant

#civilization #consent #exists #geological #notice

The Government and the Parliament, even the House of Lords, will consent to a large increase of electors; and men who have not considered the subject fully will imagine they have gained much by the concession. ↗

— John Bright

#consent #considered #even #fully #gained

Those who consent to the act and those who do it shall be equally punished. ↗

— Edward Coke

#consent #equally #punished #shall #those

The strongest and most effective force in guaranteeing the long-term maintenance of power is not violence in all the forms deployed by the dominant to control the dominated, but consent in all the forms in which the dominated acquiesce in their own domination. ↗

— Robert Frost

#consent #control #deployed #dominant #dominated

The best an American can look forward to is the lonely pleasure of one who stands at long last on a chilly and inhospitable mountaintop where few have been before, where few can follow and where few will consent to believe he has been. ↗

— George F. Kennan

#been #before #believe #best #chilly

The powers of government exercised locally derive from a federal law authorizing government by consent in local affairs only, unless those affairs are otherwise governed by federal law. ↗

— Dick Thornburgh

#authorizing #consent #derive #exercised #federal

Informed consent is required for every invasive medical procedure, from getting your ears pierced to having an abortion. ↗

— Bob McDonnell

#consent #ears #every #getting #having

In our system leadership is by consent, not command. To lead a President must persuade. Personal contacts and experiences help shape his thinking. They can be critical to his persuasiveness and thus to his leadership. ↗

— Donald Rumsfeld

#consent #contacts #critical #experiences #help