Roles of Customs, Cultures, and Languages in Informed Consent

The work in this paper is based on primary research on how to obtain informed consent to medical treatment and or procedure among patients; this study was carried out in Papua New Guinea in both urban and rural health settings across customs, cultures, and languages in two provinces, on the basis of qualitative interviews with healthcare professionals including doctors, nurses, other healthcare workers, patients, and traditional healers.We emphasize the views of consent with participants of customs, cultural, and languages regarding informed consent.There are factors between peoples of differing circumstances which can greatly alter how they view consent.Some groups would involve people in the decision-making process that may not traditionally be involved in the decision making of a medical decision.Other groups may dislike certain medical procedures as in Papua New Guinea (PNG).And certain people have different views on what should be disclosed of the patient's condition.Customs, cultures, and languages are common phenomena which continue to affect the daily lives of many thousands of people.It is unclear in PNG about the characteristics of customs, culture, and language on health care because there is no published information on informed consent and issues that affect the making of informed consent.