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Informed Consent to Gynecologic Surgery

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Strategies in Gynecologic Surgery

Part of the book series: Clinical Perspectives in Obstetrics and Gynecology ((CPOG))

Abstract

Every individual has a well established right to be free from nonconsensual touching. Violation of that right constitutes the common law tort of battery.1 The application of this principle of tort law to the practice of medicine is certainly not of recent origin. In a 1914 decision, the respected jurist Benjamin Cardozo wrote the following often-quoted language:

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.2

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Authors
  1. Benjamin Gilbert
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  2. Ben A. Rich
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Pittsburgh—Magee Womens Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15213, USA

    Herbert J. Buchsbaum M.D.

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514, USA

    Leslie A. Walton M.D.

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© 1986 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

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Gilbert, B., Rich, B.A. (1986). Informed Consent to Gynecologic Surgery. In: Buchsbaum, H.J., Walton, L.A. (eds) Strategies in Gynecologic Surgery. Clinical Perspectives in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4924-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4924-5_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-9361-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-4924-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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