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Article published In: Target
Vol. 37:1 (2025) ► pp.26–54

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‘Sign and move on’

Interpreter awareness of legal and ethical informed consent in maternity care

ORCiD logo with link | University of Edinburgh
ORCiD logo with link | Edinburgh Napier University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Edinburgh.

Published online: 1 April 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/target.23053.sus
Abstract
This article explores informed consent in maternity care in multilingual and multicultural contexts. Based on findings from a Royal Society of Edinburgh funded research project carried out in 2022 in Scotland, the article examines why consent is particularly crucial in maternity care, how it is usually obtained in the case of parents with limited English proficiency, and which barriers may stand in the way of truly informed consent. By focusing on the prevalent conception of informed consent as a legal requirement vis-à-vis its wider ethical implications, the objective of the article is to understand how the professional relationships between service providers, users, and interpreters may be enhanced through a discussion of the fiduciary aspect of interpreting and of advocacy for best possible outcomes.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Informed consent and maternity care for PSALs
  • 3.Ethics in public service interpreting
  • 4.Translators and interpreters as fiduciaries
  • 5.Vaginal examinations
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Ethics information
  • References
References (35)
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