An unidentified adult victim of a road traffic accident is brought comatose with massive haemothorax and falling blood pressure. No relative or identity document is available and delay means certain death. The trauma surgeon performs an immediate emergency thoracotomy. The legal defence protecting the surgeon is best described as:

• A Therapeutic privilege
• B Vicarious liability of the hospital
• C Res ipsa loquitur
• D Implied consent under the doctrine of necessity ✓

Explanation

When a patient cannot consent and delay threatens life, the law implies consent to life-saving treatment; this is the doctrine of necessity, reflected in Section 92 of the Indian Penal Code and carried forward in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, protecting acts done in good faith for the benefit of a person incapable of consenting. Therapeutic privilege concerns withholding information from conscious patients, and the other doctrines address proof of negligence and employer liability, none of which arises here.

Reference: Parikh's Textbook of Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, 7th ed.

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Written and medically reviewed by the StethoPrep medical team.