Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (AJHSS) Volume 1 – Issue 1, May 2013 ISSN: 2320-9720 www.ajhss.org 1 | Page Overt Communication or Covert Rhetoric: A Study of American Medical Informed Consent Forms Wincharles Coker Department of Humanities, Michigan Technological University, Michigan, USA ABSTRACT Informed consent forms are a sine qua non in today’s biomedical research. This article explores the rhetoric of ten informed consent forms approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration and an American mid-western university, and how researchers addressed bioethical concerns. Results show that the forms contain a strong apodictic logic congruent with the values enshrined in the canonical codes. Researchers, however, took precautions to distance themselves from the process of consent lest they be accused of influencing subjects. The report signals the need for vigorous technical communication research. Keywords: bioethics, informed consent form, rhetoric, technical communication, trial 1. INTRODUCTION Informed consent forms (hereafter ICFs) are a sine qua non in today’s biomedical research. They are communication documents between a subject-patient and physician-investigator that result in the patient’s authorization or agreement to undergo a specific medical intervention. As Corrigan (2003: 768) avers, “The need to secure a patient’s fully informed consent prior to medical intervention for treatment or research purpose is increasingly heralded as an ethical panacea counteracting the potential danger of paternalistic and autocratic practices”. ICFs derive their strength from US federal and international regulatory codes such as the Nuremberg Code which fundamentally holds that the voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential (Pence, 2000; Annas & Grodin, 2008). This principle of participant autonomy is considered in the bioethics literature a prerequisite against manipulation, exploitation and coercion from what Corrigan terms “autocratic paternalism” in the medical community, and against a repetition of dastardly acts of years gone by committed in the name of medical research. Research on informed consent has been extensively conducted from myriad perspectives—medicine (Pindyck et al., 1993; Hill et al., 2008), law (Wettstein, 1983; Mclean, 2004), nursing (Spindel & Suarez, 1995), bioethics (Jonsen & Miller, 2008, Lo & Garan, 2008; Walker, 2012), sociology (Appelbaum, 1982; Corrigan, 2003; Mazur, 2006), and psychology Benson et al., 1982; Mattehw, 2008). As of 2003, the subject had recorded over 4,000 empirical reports (Sugarman, 2003). Informed consent has also been well theorized in such notable works as Faden and Beauchamp’s (1986) A History and Theory of Informed Consent. Nonetheless, we know too little concerning the rhetorical deconstruction of the consent form as a communication