Consentement à l'acte médical en droit. Un état des lieux

Consent to medical care is based on respect for the universal principle of the dignity of the human person, which postulates as an axiom equal value to all human beings. An overview of the history of obtaining a patient's consent to each treatment is important to know that the current evidence of this right has been the result of a long struggle between progressive and conservative ideas. Free and informed consent is absolutely inseparable from the preceding information that the physician must give to his patient. In this way, in the Anglo-Saxon world, the expression “informed consent” is always used. The duty of information of the physician must take certain forms so that the patient can validly give his consent. Informed consent to a medical care is the expression of a patient's will to receive care, but it may also be the refusal of a therapeutic proposal. Except where expressly provided by law, there is no formalism for proof of consent in French law.