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INCAPACITY Absence of capacity in adults does not vitiate the requirement, where possible, to take into account the patient’s sentiments during clinical decision making. In one case, a judge declared that an elderly man with a septic leg, although incapacitat...

INTRODUCTION This chapter incorporates references to English common and statute law . Nevertheless, these legal and ethical principles have much in common with other jurisdictions across the world. Surgery , ethics and law go hand in hand. In any other arena o...

Learning objectives To understand: The importance of autonomy in good surgical practice • The necessity for reasonable disclosure prior to seeking • consent for surgery Good practice in making decisions about withdrawal of • life-sustaining treatment Learning ...

REFERENCES 1 Kings College Hospital v C & V [2015] EWCOP 80 2 Montgomery (Appellant) v Lanarkshire Health Board (Respondent) (Scotland) [2015] UKSC 11 3 Wheeler RA. Tangible Sentiments. Bulletin RCSE, 2016 January 98 44 4 Salford Royal NHSFT v P & Q [2017] EWC...

RESEARCH As part of their duty to protect life and health to an acceptable professional standard, surgeons have a subsidiary responsibility to strive to improve operative techniques through research to assure themselves and their patients that the care propos...

RESPECT FOR AUTONOMY Surgeons have a duty of care towards their patients that goes beyond merely protecting life and health. Their additional duty of care is to respect the autonomy of their patients and their - ability to make choices about their treatment...

SHARING INFORMATION WITH THE POLICE It is not uncommon to receive a request from the police for patient data. Consider the patient admitted after a fall down the stairs; it is suggested that his partner had caused the fall. The partner is in police custody , a...

STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE To optimise success in protecting life and health to an accept - able standard, surgeons must only o ff er specialised treatment in which they have been properly trained. To do so will entail sustained further education throughout a surg...

SURGICAL PRACTICE Thus far, the moral and legal reasons why the duty of surgeons to respect the autonomy of patients translates into the specific responsibility to obtain informed consent to treatment have been reviewed. For consent to be valid, adult patients...