YOUR BODY IS YOUR OWN

Shannon News, 5 April 1927, Page 4

YOUR BODY IS YOUR OWN

WOJIAN SUES DOCTOR OPERATION WITHOUT HER / CONSENT. A claim for damages fof operating upon her without her consent was made by Mrs. Hilda Haddocks, of Jessica Street, Kirkdale, Liverpool, against Mr. John St. George Wilson, honorary surgeon to the Samaritan Hospital for Women, Liverpool, at Liverpool Assizes. Mr. Rice-Jones, for Mrs, Maddocks said that the body of a man or woman was sacred and no one had any right to intermeddle with;it. To perform an operation without a patient's consent was, in law, an assault. Mrs. Maddocks went into the hospital for an examination and was operated upon without being brought out of the anaesthetic. Mrs. Maddocks cross-examined by M. Singleton, K.C.. said that her only complaint was that she was not told the operation was to be performed. She agreed to an examination but not to an operation. She had suffered more pain since the operation than before.

Dr. Wilson said that the examination of Mrs. Maddocks revealed a risk of death and that an operation was urgently necessary. He thought it better to do it at one sitting, and he did so. In his opinion there was no other way. Mr. Justice Wright told" the jury that no surgeon had any, right, however well-intentioned, to perform an operation without the consent of the person concerned.

The Jury returned a verdict for Dr. Wilson, and the foreman said that the jury wished to add a rider that no doctor ought to operate without getting the necessary consent if it was possible