Landmark Legal Cases

Application 9

Shelia Addison

Walden University

Research a current or historic landmark legal case related to either informed consent or evaluation and reports in court.

The historical legal case that I will discuss will be the (1972) landmark case of Canterbury vs. Spence.  This case gave permissible and medical power to the "reasonable" person standard in informed consent. Canterbury vs. Spence is a case concerning a person who had surgery for a herniated disc, and somehow became paralyzed after the surgery. In establishing the ruling, the court ruled that the most average person has little or no understanding of the medical arts and has only her physician to whom he can look to for enlightment to reach an intelligent decision (Canterbury v. Spence as cited in Brenner, & Bal, 2008). Based on this ruling, the reasonable person standard and disclosures containing information about the risks and benefits of treatment resulted in many cases based on the landmark decision. The operation turned out be unexpectedly complex, and ended up with an incontinent and paralyzed patient. The lawsuit alleged an incomplete disclosure of the risks of surgery. In acknowledging that there was no precedent in American law for sustaining a claim based on an inadequate disclosure of risks and alternatives, the court held: “The average patient has little or no understanding of the medical arts, and ordinarily has only his physician to whom he can look for enlightenment with which to reach an intelligent decision. From these almost axiomatic considerations springs the need, and in turn the requirement, of a reasonable divulgence by physician to patient to make such a decision possible.” Canterbury vs. Spence was decided in 1972 and ushered in the modern era of informed consent. This case is representative of the important role that orthopedic cases have played in the evolution of the American law of medical malpractice.

Reasonable disclosures refers to all...