Nudging, informed consent and public health: Dangerous liaisons between law and neuroscience or opportunity for the future?

Abstract

Italian Law 219/2017 has been a major achievement in the path to recognize the primacy of informed consent as a part of a wide-ranging relationship between physician and patient (therapeutic alliance). In this context many questions arise from neuroscience findings, and two seem to be more significant. The first one is if informed consent may be thought as a result of biochemical processes and how it could be therefore addressed in both health and legal context. The second question stems from the implementation of nudging techniques in public health policies: is nudging an ethical mean to reach a higher level of health in our societies? A comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach is adopted in order to offer possible answers. The article suggests how informed consent may be regarded as a free choice and why to design a choice architecture that influences citizens’ behavior is undoubtedly efficient, but policy-makers have primarily to place weight on building a relationship of trust with people.