The Ethics of Communicating Consent

Consent can mark a line to separate sex from rape, and medical surgery from battery. Yet this line risks becoming blurred. Can we communicate sexual consent through actions? If so, which actions can communicate consent? Which cultural beliefs must we share to manage this? What does this imply for the design of rape law or sexual education policy? How closely must a physician follow the letter of what a patient says, if the physician reasonably interprets the patient as failing to express herself with the words she uses? What does this imply for health policy regulating informed consent?

These are examples of the practical questions that my research will address. Most researchers now agree that consent has to be communicated in one form or another. This means we now have to answer ethical questions about communicating consent. I will ask how literally we must interpret someone's consent, and how much we can read between the lines of what someone says. I will ask whether it is possible to implicitly communicate consent, and if so, how we do so. I will investigate the ethical importance for consent of the context in which a conversation takes place. I will ask how our understanding influences our ability to communicate consent. I will not just examine the linguistic side of these issues, but also explore the ethical considerations involved. I will use the results of my research to draw conclusions for policy.

Research into these questions is important. In liberal democracies we need to understand the ethics of consent, because we agree that each of us should control what happens to his or her body. This makes my research important for framing healthcare policy governing medical consent, research policy governing human subjects, rape law and sexual education policy. This is also a good time to conduct this research. A recent government report found that English teenagers are often confused about sexual consent. Meanwhile, there is currently an international debate about how to define sexual consent in universities' rules. This challenge also faces the undergraduate consent workshops that are increasingly popular in the UK. On the medical side of things, informed consent procedures are in flux in light of a 2015 UK Supreme Court ruling.

I will address these questions partly by making use of cutting-edge theories of communication. This will involve looking outside of moral philosophy and drawing new connections with the philosophy of language and linguistics. But it is not enough just to look at the linguistic side of communication. We also need to understand its ethical dimension. So I will also evaluate various ethical rules for consent. Other researchers have used an approach like this to understand the ethics of other forms of speech, like hate speech. But no one has fully explored this approach for consent. So my research will break new ground.

By answering these questions, my research will lead to the very first detailed account of the ethics of communicating consent. It will mean we understand much better how we communicate consent to each other, and what the ethical significance of this communication is. This is knowledge that we can use in our everyday lives, and also knowledge that can help our society create the best policies.

My research will benefit policymakers, sixth-form students, undergraduates, and the general public.

Policymakers. I will draw implications from my research for several different types of policy: policy concerning laws against sexual assault, sexual education curriculum, healthcare policy and policy regulating research on human subjects. My research will improve healthcare and research policymakers' knowledge of the appropriate ways in which consent to medical therapy and research must be informed, and their knowledge of physicians' and researchers duties of disclosure. Policymakers can use this knowledge when designing healthcare and research institutions and the codes of conduct that regulate professionals within these institutions. My research will improve policymakers' knowledge of the types of communication necessary for valid sexual consent and the ways in which deception can invalidate sexual consent. Policymakers can use this knowledge both when framing laws against sexual assault, and also when designing institutions that enforce these laws. These results will also be of use to education policymakers when designing the sexual education curriculum. I will target my research at these policymakers by organising a Consent Policy Workshop that brings together researchers with policymakers (See First Pathway to Impact). I will also strengthen my connections with policymakers, and make my research available to them, through creating the Virtual Corridor on the Consent Hub's website, which facilitates conversations between academics and policymakers.

Undergraduates will benefit from my research on the ethics of communicating sexual consent. My research will clarify the ways in which sexual consent must be communicated in order to be morally valid, and clarify how deception can invalidate sexual consent. These results will provide ethical guidance to students in their own sexual encounters, and reduce the incidence of sexual misconduct at universities. I will ensure my research benefits undergraduates by organising a conference that brings together student organisers of consent workshops for fellow undergraduates (See Second Pathway to Impact). I will discuss my research at this conference, so that it subsequently guides the design and delivery of student-run consent workshops at universities. I will partner with the National Union of Students to write a report on this conference to ensure that its content is widely available to all undergraduates.

Sixth-form college students will also benefit from my research concerning sexual consent in similar ways to those noted above with respect to undergraduates. I will ensure my research benefits these sixth-form students by creating the Sexual Consent Classes Pilot Scheme. (See Third Pathway to Impact). This will involve the design of sexual consent classes for sixth-form students, and I will participate in delivering these in local colleges. I will write a report on this scheme, and publicise this to education policymakers who are interested in the design of sexual education curricula, so that the benefits of the pilot scheme reacher a broader range of sixth-form student beneficiaries.