Increasing the public awareness of justification

Abstract

One of the requirements of the UK Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2017 is that all medical exposures must be justified before the exposure can proceed. One of the main elements of justification is a determination that the medical benefits from the exposure will exceed the associated radiation detriment. The field of medical exposure to ionising radiation is in the rare position of having this explicit legal requirement for net benefit. In this article it is argued that, although separate information on benefit and detriment is also required for implied or explicit informed consent prior to exposure, justification comes first, is simple to explain, and is easily related to the commonly understood basis of medical ethics. It seems reasonable, therefore, to make patients and the public more aware of the protection that UK law already provides for them. A proposal for a single-sentence general statement on justification is made.