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Pap Smears: Physicians Must Disclose Risk of Refusal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2021

George J. Annas
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Extract

In 1972 the California Supreme Court helped set the standard for informed consent in the landmark case of Cobbs v. Grant. That case involved a middleaged gentleman who was operated on for an intractable peptic duodenal ulcer. He suffered complications which included loss of his spleen, a subsequent gastric ulcer, and a 50% gastrectomy. None of these well-recognized potential risks of ulcer surgery had been disclosed to him. The court determined that physicians must disclose the following information to patients, in lay terms, before performing procedures on them:

  1. a description of the procedure and its success rates;

  2. risks of death or serious bodily harm;

  3. alternatives, and the dangers inherent in each; and

  4. major problems of recuperation.

Type
Health Law Notes
Information
Nursing Law & Ethics , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , January 1981 , pp. 3
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1981

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References

1. Cobbs v. Grant, 8 Cal. 3d 229,104 Cal. Rpt. 505, 502 P.2d 1(1972).Google Scholar
2. Truman v. Thomas, 165 Cal. Rpt. 308 (1980).Google Scholar
3. This duty remains the same whether or not the test is recommended annually, or at regular intervals spaced one to three years apart. See Consensus — More or Less — on the Pap Smear, SCIENCE 209:672 (Aug. 8, 1980).Google Scholar