A consultant anaesthetist gave a diclofenac suppository for postoperative pain to a patient having four teeth extracted under general anaesthesia in the dental surgery. He did not seek the patient's specific consent preoperatively for use of the suppository but told her afterwards what he had done. Charged before the professional conduct committee of the General Medical Council with failure to obtain informed consent and assault, the anaesthetist was found guilty of serious professional misconduct and admonished. This decision has far reaching implications and has caused great concern.

Consent and a patient's right to self determination are at the root of many important problems in medical ethics. In recent years consent, or the lack of it, has also become an increasingly common issue in medical negligence litigation. By contrast, the failure by a doctor to obtain consent to bona fide treatment has rarely if ever been the sole foundation for a finding of serious professional misconduct. I report a case recently brought before the professional conduct committee of the General Medical Council in which such a decision was reached.