RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 The impossibility of informed consent? JF Journal of Medical Ethics JO J Med Ethics FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics SP 44 OP 47 DO 10.1136/medethics-2014-102308 VO 41 IS 1 A1 Boyd, Kenneth YR 2015 UL http://jme.bmj.com/content/41/1/44.abstract AB The problematic nature of informed consent to medical treatment and research, and its relation to autonomy, trust and clinical practice, has been addressed on many occasions and from a variety of ethical perspectives in the pages of the Journal of Medical Ethics. This paper gives an account of how discussion of these issues has developed and changed, by describing a number of significant contributions to these debates which provide examples of ‘doing good medical ethics’ over the 40 years of the Journal's publication.