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First of a series of legal cases to establish the legal principle of patient autonomy.

1905

MED
LEG
EXP

Parmelia J. Davis sues her surgeon for an involuntary hysterectomy he believed would treat her seizures. The surgeon, Edwin H. Pratt, argues that her seizure disorder prevented her from being able to give consent for the procedure. This is one of four different legal cases decided in the early 20th century that identify a patient's right to consent to any medical procedure before it is carried out. The first three cases are related to non-consensual surgical procedures that resulted in worsened health outcomes, and the fourth in 1914 officially establishes the legal precedent for patient autonomy after a woman is coerced into a hysterectomy after explicitly stating she did not want one as a treatment for fibroids.