ABA Family Legal Guide

Health-Care Law

Patients' Rights

Informed Consent

I trust my doctor to make the best decision for me in medical matters that I don't understand. Why do we need informed consent?

Informed consent came about so patients could better share in decisions about their treatment. One of the earliest cases dealt with a woman who claimed that a doctor operated on her, without her consent, to remove a lump from her stomach. The woman sued her doctor and won. As the judge in that case put it:

"Every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body; and a surgeon who performs an operation without his patient's consent commits an assault, for which he is liable in damages."

Of course, a patient also has the right to waive the right to full disclosure. After all, there are some health-care consumers who simply do not want to know the risks associated with a medical procedure, and believe that ignorance is bliss.