Medico legal Implications of Consent, Different types of consent, Informed Refusal and Therapeutic Privilege

You sign a form at a Mumbai hospital without reading it, because the admission desk says it is routine. Hours later you are on a table and the surgeon is about to do something you never discussed. Was your signature a licence to do anything the doctor thought best? The law says no. A patient’s consent is what separates treatment from assault, and this topic asks what makes that consent real, when it can be dispensed with, and what happens when the patient says no.

In two minutes

Consent turns a touching of the body into lawful treatment; it is valid only if the patient has capacity, agrees freely, and has been told enough about the procedure, its risks and the alternatives to decide.

The rest of this chapter

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