Torts - Medical negligence - Doctors' duty to keep patient informed.
The law on medical negligence also has to keep up with the advances in the medical science as to treatment as also diagnostics. Doctors increasingly must engage with patients during treatments especially when the line of treatment is a contested one and hazards are involved. Standard of care in such cases will involve the duty to disclose to patients about the risks of serious side effects or about alternative treatments. In the times to come, litigation may be based on the theory of lack of informed consent. A significant number of jurisdictions, however, determine the existence and scope of the doctor's duty to inform based on the information a reasonable patient would find material in deciding whether or not to undergo the proposed therapy. In this respect, the only reasonable guarantee of a patient's right of bodily integrity and self-determination is for courts to apply a stringent standard of disclosure in conjunction with a presumption of proximate cause. At the same time, a reasonable measure of autonomy for the doctor is also pertinent to be safeguarded from unnecessary interference.
MALAY KUMAR GANGULY VS. DR. SUKUMAR MUKHERJEE & ORS.
2009-ALL SCR-2039 ( Para 169)
