[Forensic medical aspects of the compulsory informing of patients by physicians]

An outline is presented of the problems concerning the principles of the patients' compulsory medical instruction on the nature of the disease or injury and on the required operations as laid down by Czechoslovak health legislation. The need for adequate methods of such instruction with the aim of winning the patient's cooperation within the context of the principle of obtaining the patient's consent to surgical operation is confronted with the non-certifiable patient's inalienable personal right - i. e. the right of disposal of one's own person, e. e. the right to the integrity of one's own body - as demonstrated on the concept of negative undertaking. The licence of exception from the general provisions of the Civil Code on the duty to provide correct and complete formation in health services cannot be taken extensively. Under certain circumstances the mandatory instruction to the patient may include warning him of the possible hazards of the operation, particularly where the operation is not essential to saving life or to averting serious detriment to health, or where ther is no urgency in terms of time. Concrete cases discussed by committees of experts are presented as examples. A strictly individual approach is recommended taking into account the nature of the affection, the operation required, and the requirement of psychoprophylaxis.