ABSTRACT
Contemporary doctors and surgeons are well aware of the need to obtain informed consent prior to treatment or surgery, but this was not always the case. For example, the Nuremberg Code was enacted in the 1940s after Nazi human experimentation, and the Declaration of Helsinki was enacted in 1964 to create a code of research ethics. In addition, Institutional Review Boards were set up as a result of the outrage caused by the Tuskegee Study, in which Black men with syphilis were left untreated from 1932 to 1972 despite penicillin becoming available in the 1940s.1,2
It is important for doctors to know about consent issues, even though many organizations, including governments, want to take ownership of this basic medical entity, because, in the final analysis, it is the treating doctor who bears all or most of the responsibility. Also, lawyers seek to exploit any deficiencies or errors in the system.
