International Journal of Clinical Trials | July-September 2014 | Vol 1 | Issue 2 Page 49 International Journal of Clinical Trials Pazare PK et al. Int J Clin Trials. 2014 Aug;1(2):49-54 http://www.ijclinicaltrials.com pISSN 2349-3240 | eISSN 2349-3259 Research Article Are we requesting the right consent? Pradeep K. Pazare, Vithalrao P. Dandge*, Nilofer S. Mujawar, Meenakshi Girish INTRODUCTION In modern days, the doctor is no longer held in high esteem. The faith in the healer has been slowly waning. The gentleman’s agreement no longer holds true and every agreement is now in black and white. Today the doctor is viewed with suspicion and the doctor too safeguarding himself or herself prefers to have a consent for everything. Consent is an ethical principle. Medical treatment can only be administered with consent of a competent patient. Giving the treatment without consent is failure to respect patient’s autonomy; violating an individual’s right to self-determination. Any medical treatment given without consent is an action for trespass where damages are payable. Patients are admitted in hospitals wherein they undergo therapy in the form medications, investigations which could be invasive non-invasive or interventions or surgeries. In all the above mentioned situations the patient has to agree to the required therapy. When a patient walks into a doctors’ office, it is understood that it is a voluntary act and he/she implies that he/she is willing to undergo a clinical examination by the doctor and accept the treatment prescribed thereof. But if a person is admitted in a hospital, the person has to be informed at every step the findings of the clinical examination and consent obtained for further therapy. This is done by obtaining his/her signature to consent to any treatment. This important piece of paper is called a consent form. METHODS We conducted a cross sectional study to evaluate the consent forms from various hospitals. We designed an ideal consent form which covered 20 ethical and medico legal aspects. This was validated by experts in the clinical field, lawyers and medico legal expert. In the city of ABSTRACT Background: Medical treatment can only be administered with consent of a competent patient. Giving the treatment without consent is failure to respect patient’s autonomy; violating an individual’s right to self -determination. Methods: We conducted a cross sectional study to evaluate the consent forms from various hospitals. Consent forms of 372 out of 750 medical institutes in Nagpur were evaluated under 20 ethical and medico legal aspects of an ideal consent form. Results: Most of the consent forms lack important clauses of an ideal consent form that can go against the treating doctors in the court of law. Conclusions: Doctors need to be trained to design a consent form. They need to be made aware of the medico legal rights of the patient. The consent form is for the patients to acknowledge that the nature and purpose of treatment has been fully explained, understood and consented to. Remember patients never consent to doctor’s negligence but only to risks and complications. Keywords: Consent, Medico legal Department of Paediatrics, NKPSIMS & LMH, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India Received: 5 July 2014 Accepted: 20 July 2014 *Correspondence: Dr. Vithalrao P. Dandge, E-mail: dandge_vp@yahoo.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: 10.5455/2349-3259.ijct20140803