Seventh Circuit Allows Informed Consent Claim Under FTCA

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The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held, in Murrey v. United States (73 F.3d 1448 (7th Cir. 1996)), that claims for a physician's failure to obtain a patient's informed consent are not barred by the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) as a species of misrepresentation. The court further held that the claim was not barred by the failure to include the issue of informed consent in the administrative claim. This decision reduces the burden on plaintiffs to state every cognizable claim consistent with the facts in an administrative proceeding; the failure to do so would prevent them from raising the claim in court.

The patient, Thomas Murrey, a sixty-eight-year-old U.S. veteran, sought treatment at a Veteran's Administration (VA) hospital in North Chicago, Illinois. VA doctors diagnosed him with prostate cancer, and advised him to undergo surgery to remove his entire prostate.