The language of consent: do we take or does the patient give?

The language of consent: do we take or does the patient give?
Opinion
Simon M Everett
BMJ Endoscopy, 3 August 2023
Excerpt
… The other thing I hear frequently is how best to ‘take consent’. Let us be clear, we cannot ‘take consent’. The only action that deems consent to be legal is that it is ‘freely given’ and that is the basis on which we should talk to our patients. The patient gives us their consent and we receive it, but we do not take it.

Is this just pointless pedantry? Maybe, but if we are using words that describe the consent process incorrectly, it is likely that we are not allocating the time and space that this discussion requires. If we continue to use incorrect terminology, we will continue in the paternalistic way of thinking. Too often in medical practice consent is seen as a time- consuming barrier to doing the things that we believe to be best for our patients. Yes, it can be time consuming, but the more I avail patients of my time, the more I find they need it…