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Medical history

The US Canterbury v. Spence case in 1972 officially established the principle of informed consent in US law. Canterbury underwent a laminectomy to relieve back pain but was not informed of the risk of paralysis. While left by himself, he fell off his bed and was later paralyzed from the waist down; he required further surgeries but was never completely relieved of paralysis in his bowels and bladder. Earlier legal cases had created the underpinnings for informed consent, but his judgment gave a detailed and thought through discourse on the matter. The judgment cites cases going back to 1914 as precedent for informed consent.: 56