ABSTRACT
The requirement that a patient must give a valid consent to medical treatment and its corollary, that it is the patient's prerogative to refuse treatment, even at the cost of his life, are issues at the heart of medical law. The consent form originally referred to a 'replacement breast prosthesis and right open capsulotomy', procedures less radical than a mastectomy. The debate between 'paternalism' and 'patient autonomy' is essentially about whose view should prevail in such circumstances. The term 'battery' conjures up images of violence and indeed, in Wilson v Pringle, the Court of Appeal suggested that the touching must be 'hostile' in order to constitute a battery. Besides being a tort, battery is also a crime, albeit in the latter context the term used for it is 'assault'. The interest of the state in preventing suicide was considered by the California Court of Appeal in the case of Bouvia v Superior Court.
