ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a recent judgement that explores the practicalities of obtaining valid consent for surgery, exposing some difficulties in that process. The great difficulty for clinicians is how they might enable the patient to scrutinise the subjective factors during their decision-making for surgery, rather than only consider them following surgical misadventure, later reflecting that on the basis of their situation, they would not have run the risk in the first place. While these intensely personal aspects of a patient's life remain unknown to the surgeon, it would seem unjust to expect them to appreciate the ramifications that foreseeable risks of surgery may have for the patient. It remains to be seen how far the English courts will go in allowing claimants to dress the reasonable person in their particular clothes.
