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Health Law Keyed to Furrow

View this case in different Casebooks

Torts Keyed to Epstein Torts Keyed to Epstein Health Law Keyed to Furrow

Canterbury v. Spence

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Facts

Canterbury (Plaintiff) claimed that he would have rejected a certain medical procedure if he had known all of the possible risks that Defendant failed to disclose.

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Q.1 - Which analytical rationale best supports the court’s rejection of a physician-centered standard in favor of the reasonable patient test for informed consent in Canterbury v. Spence?

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(A) The professional standard failed to satisfy the constitutional minimum for procedural due process in medical tort adjudication.

Incorrect. A is incorrect because the court’s reasoning was grounded in tort, not constitutional due process.

(B) The physician’s duty of disclosure is fiduciary in nature and thus cannot be self-regulated without compromising relational asymmetry.

Correct! The court framed the disclosure duty as relational and fiduciary, emphasizing asymmetrical knowledge and trust, rendering reliance on self-policing professional norms incompatible with that structure.

(C) The professional custom approach violates equal protection by permitting disparate disclosure obligations across jurisdictions.

Incorrect. C is incorrect as no equal protection framework was applied or invoked.

(D) The physician-centered standard conflicted with the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, rendering it internally inconsistent with tort law principles.

Incorrect. D is incorrect because res ipsa loquitur is irrelevant to informed consent doctrine.

Q.2 - What underlying tort doctrine did Canterbury v. Spence implicitly recalibrate by shifting focus from professional practice to patient autonomy?

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(A) The objective-subjective framework governing foreseeability in proximate cause.

Incorrect. A is incorrect as foreseeability in causation was not the doctrinal locus of the decision.

(B) The balance between corrective justice and distributive justice in damage apportionment.

Incorrect. B is incorrect because the case does not address principles of justice in damages.

(C) The role of expert testimony in establishing breach under the standard of care.

Correct! Canterbury redefined the role of expert testimony, holding that juries — not professionals — determine breach via the reasonable patient lens, weakening expert dominance in standard-of-care disputes.

(D) The scope of duty analysis in relation to omissions and nonfeasance.

Incorrect. D is incorrect as the duty analysis did not hinge on omission vs. commission distinctions.

Q.3 - By holding that informed consent hinges on risks material to a reasonable patient, the Canterbury court most directly displaced which of the following jurisprudential assumptions?

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(A) That custom is conclusive in defining reasonableness under negligence law.

Correct! Canterbury undermined the assumption that professional custom alone defines reasonable conduct, asserting instead that legal reasonableness is ultimately determined by courts through normative patient-centered standards.

(B) That harm resulting from non-disclosure is presumptively unforeseeable in medical contexts.

Incorrect. B is incorrect because foreseeability of harm from non-disclosure was accepted, not presumed absent.

(C) That physicians are legally obligated to prioritize therapeutic outcomes over patient choice.

Incorrect. C is incorrect since prioritizing therapeutic outcomes over patient autonomy was precisely what the court rejected.

(D) That judicial deference to medical judgment constitutes a structural limit on tort liability.

Incorrect. D is incorrect because while medical judgment was considered, it was not viewed as a barrier to legal scrutiny.

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Melissa A. Hale

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Canterbury v. Spence

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Canterbury v. Spence

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Canterbury v. Spence