ABSTRACT
Adults have a legal right to choose whether to consent to medical treatment, to ➤ refuse it or to choose one rather than another of the treatments on off er. Valid consent to medical intervention provides legal defence to the health worker ➤ from civil actions in battery (unconsented touching) or negligence, and from prosecution for the crime of battery. For actions in battery to succeed, the plaintiff must only prove that intentional ➤ touching occurred without consent; harm need not have occurred.
