Patients have the right to information. The DMAI/NABH patient charter states that patients and their family members have the right to receive complete information regarding the patient’s medical problem, prescription, treatment and procedure details. A documented procedure to obtain patient’s and/or his family’s informed consent is in place to help them make an informed decision about care. This process is an important patient right and must be practiced with the highest degree of diligence and transparency.

MCI Code of Ethics Regulations 2002 also addresses this issue under regulation 7.21, stating that no act of in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination should be initiated without the informed consent of the female patient, her spouse and the donor. The consent has to be obtained in writing after the patient is given, at her own level of understanding, sufficient information pertaining to the purpose, methods, risks, inconveniences, disappointments of the procedure and the possible associated risks.