INFORMED CONSENT
Assent to permit an occurrence, such as surgery,
that is based on a complete disclosure of facts
needed to make the decision intelligently, such as
knowledge of the risks entailed or alternatives.
The name for a fundamental principle of law
that a physician has a duty to reveal what a rea-
sonably prudent physician in the medical commu-
nity employing reasonable care would reveal to a
patient as to whatever reasonably foreseeable risks
of harm might result from a proposed course of
treatment. This disclosure must be afforded so that
a patient—exercising ordinary care for his or her
own welfare and confronted with a choice of
undergoing the proposed treatment, alternative
treatment, or none at all—can intelligently exer-
cise judgment by reasonably BALANCING the
