Consent and capacity are ethical issues that doctors encounter every day in clinical practice. Informed consent, when taken correctly, can help empower patients and improve adherence and understanding of their treatment. Despite this, these areas seem to be poorly understood by clinicians, and are a major cause of calls to medico-legal defence organisations. This article is a concise amalgamation of General Medical Council (GMC) and British Medical Association (BMA) guidance, with justification for the importance of consent in practice. It covers the definitions of consent and capacity, how they are to be taken, lack of capacity, consent in minors, and parental responsibility. This is in order to provide clinicians with a base knowledge of these issues, which they can apply to their everyday practice.
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