>     True...because very few doctors are so _stupid_ as to do surgery 
 > or other procedures without getting informed consent.
Even more pragmatic than that, the mere fact that a patient willingly allowed 
himself to be operated on voluntarily constitutes a form of informed consent.
Was an interesting case many years ago of a woman who went to a hospital to 
have her baby and subsequently sued (even though everything went oaky) saying 
that she did not authorize an IV, forceps, or *anything* to be done to her 
and indeed, she had not signed the blanket hospital consent to medical 
treatment.  The judge who threw it out said that her mere voluntary 
presentation for admission to the hospital was plenty of consent.
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