ABSTRACT
The courts have recognised the fundamental right of all adults to have control over their bodily integrity and protect that right through the civil and criminal law.
The threat of unlawful physical force against the person (assault) or the application of that force (battery) can give rise to a legal action in the courts for damages unless the touching is negligible. All medical treatment, including examination and diagnostic procedures, is a potential battery in the absence of consent, necessity or statutory sanction. Doctors also owe a duty of care to their patients and will be liable for negligence if they do not properly obtain their patients’ consent to medical treatment. A doctor who treats a patient without consent may also be subject to professional disciplinary proceedings before the General Medical Council, the body which has statutory responsibility for regulating the practice of medicine.
