John N. Dunham, Administrator of the Estate of Dorothy Louise Sipling, Deceased v. Frederick W. Wright and Frederick M. Wright

OPINION OF THE COURT

ADAMS, Circuit Judge.

Legal-medico jurisprudence requires that a physician obtain the consent of a patient before performing surgery unless the need for such consent is obviated by an emergency which places the patient in immediate danger and makes it impractical to secure such consent.1 This blackletter rule, clear *942and simple on its face, has occasioned courts in many jurisdictions to grapple with defining the elusive concepts of “consent” and “emergency.” These concepts require courts to develop a delicate balance between the right of the patient to choose the treatment…