Consent to treatment: practice vis-à-vis principle.

It is a principle recognised not only by our own but by other legal systems that ignorance of the law is no excuse for violating it. This is also expressed in the form of a legal presumption that everyone knows the law. So it is the duty of every person to be acquainted with that part of it which concerns him or her. In recent years there have been a number of malpractice suits based on lack of consent or inadequate consent from the patient for procedures used in treatment. The common meaning of consent is permission, whereas the law perceives it as a contract, that is, an agreement enforceable by law. Keeping this view, the present article aims at highlighting certain misconceptions prevailing regarding consent.