A practical guide to informed consent to treatment
BMJ 2001; 323 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.323.7327.1464 (Published 22 December 2001) Cite this as: BMJ 2001;323:1464All rapid responses
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I consent to the following operation on my child, ________.
Eventhough, the doctor explained the complex nature of the surgery and
it's potential consequences to me, it appears that I would need to have
gone to medical school, had 15 years of surgical training, and know a
little bit of physics,astronomy, and carpentry to understand what is wrong
with my child, ___________, and how doctor, __________, proposes to fix
it. Since I neither have that training nor understood what the doctor
told me but since my child, ______, seems different from other children, I
will consent to the operation. I hope that doctor, __________, has done
enough similar surgeries before but realize that my child, ______, may be
unique and that doctor, ______________, may have to "wing" it as the
anatomy is revealed in the operating theater. In the event that my child
is less than perfect after the operation, I promise to attribute that to
the chaotic laws of nature and forgo review of my child's case.
Operation: ____________________________________
(to include any other surgeries, transplantations, experimental
procedures, exotic gases and expensive devices as my doctor saw fit to do
in order for my child to be able to leave the operating room to the
satisfaction of the anesthesiologist)
Competing interests: No competing interests
The wisdom in wit
Oxman and colleagues are to be congratulated on their witty account
of the varieties of "actually existing consent" to medical treatment. As
a teacher of medical ethics and law to medical students, I shall certainly
be using their essay to provoke discussion in class. This essay will be
very useful in getting them to think about why consent is important, and
why its importance to and meaning for patients may not be the same as for
some of the third parties who have a stake in insisting on it!
Competing interests: No competing interests