It’s a terrifying thought: being put under anesthesia and, while you are under, having unwanted or unnecessary procedures performed on you. But according to an article in Canada’s the Globe and Mail, it’s exactly what’s happening in many Canadian teaching hospitals—medical students are being instructed to perform gynecological exams on unconscious women. In the US and the UK, written consent is required, but in Canada, according to the article, “guidelines state that pelvic examination by trainees is ‘implicit.’”
This practice went unnoticed until 2007, when a...