Do we really know the law about students and patient consent?

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7515.522-a

BMJ 2005;331:522 (3 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7515.522-a

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Do we really know the law about students and patient consent?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

It is difficult to understand medical law without an appreciationand full understanding of the scale and importance of consent.Through spending time on the wards and in the theatres, medicalstudents learn the necessity and legal importance of consent.However, I wonder whether we truly know the laws of consent,and I go as far as to ask whether all doctors themselves do.It seems to me that the true breadth of the term consent isnot fully appreciated and has become yet another automatismin the profession.

Many situations arise where doctors and medical students arerequired to obtain consent. In clerking and performing procedureson conscious patients, it is obvious that we need to get informedconsent. But at other times consent is neglected. We learn andseem to appreciate that without consent any procedure or examinationis deemed as battery and assault—a prosecutable offence.Consent therefore . . . [Full text of this article]

Alexander S J Shaw, fourth year medical student

Royal Free and University College Medical School, London alexander.shaw@ucl.ac.uk

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