There was Transparent Tranquility in the Old Surgeon- Patient Relationship unlike Today’s Troubles in the Courts: A Historical Review

Much as the prevailing opinion is that informed consent is a modern legal problem, it is shown that even the very word, consent, appeared in the literature during the olden days by 1753. Nowadays, since consent has become a bone of contention, it has even been proposed that tactics should be changed by requiring the patients themselves to provide in writing an informed request! In this context, it is shown here that the patients of yore were the ones who pleaded for the operations. For example, a word such as “desire” for the operation was in common use from 1805. Hence, the harmonious past contrasts with the present uncomfortably high legal stakes. Therefore, let the surgeon's sagacity triumph over any patient's adversarial attitude. In all probability, the prevailing gloom ought to increasingly give way to bloom itself.