EDITOR,—I suspect that the case of an anaesthetist found guilty by the General Medical Council of an assault through lack of consent to his actions will precipitate the full range of emotions among doctors, from concern to outrage.1 The council may, however, have done the profession a favour in the troubled area of consent, which continues to languish in the era since the case of Sidaway v Governors of Bethlem Royal Hospital.2 In that case it was sufficient to show that other doctors (even a minority) would not …