The main intention of coming up with a medical consent form is to free people from any form of liabilities in a medical situation.
Issuance of these forms by hospitals has been a common practice and is primarily handed out to families of patients to permit the doctor to perform appropriate medical procedure to help a patient in question.
As much as a doctor will try his best to help improve the condition of his patient, certain complications are beyond his control and of no fault of the doctor's.
The medical consent form therefore is given as a contract that the doctor and the related hospital will not be held liable in the event something beyond the control of the doctors happens to the patient during a medical procedure.
For instance, before a surgery, this consent form is usually given for the families of the patient to sign.
Once this form is signed, the family in effect is giving the doctor to do all he can to save the life of the patient, being aware that any unforeseeable outcome is not the fault of the doctor.
Given the nature of this medical consent form, many may feel that it is a way of allowing the doctor an escape route from the law should something untoward happen.
However, this is not the case.
This is basically a written agreement between the family and the doctor.
The family will be informed of the pros and cons of the medical procedure before it is made to sign the consent form.
Besides the hospital, medical consent forms are also issued when external organizations conduct camps or trainings.
Given the outdoor nature of such activities, accidents and injuries are part of the game.
As such, camp participants are given consent forms which state what the organizers can and cannot be held liable for.
The participants are usually given warning about their environment when they are camping so that they are aware of what could possibly happen.
As such, signing the medical consent form while being informed makes the participant liable for his own safety.