Schiff v. Prados

Opinion

KAY, J.

A doctor’s obligation to obtain a patient’s informed consent to medical treatment includes “a duty of reasonable disclosure of the available choices with respect to proposed therapy and of the dangers inherently and potentially involved in each.” (Cobbs v. Grant (1972) 8 Cal.3d 229, 243 [104 Cal.Rptr. 505, 502 P.2d 1].) We hold that, as a matter of law, a treatment that cannot legally be administered in this state is not “available” within the meaning of this rule, and thus that a physician cannot be held liable for failing to disclose the existence of such a treatment.

I.…