[Treatment of patients incapable of giving their consent. Legal requirements in anesthesia and intensive care medicine].

A treatment procedure requires the consent of the patient, but this is legally effective only if he is capable of giving his consent and can be informed accordingly. Because of demographic development and the progress of medicine, the number of patients who are not able to give their consent is increasing. In practice, we make do with the presumed consent of the patient or, for procedures that can wait, with the consent of legitimate family members. An initiative action is suggested by physicians and hospitals that should reduce this gray zone and the forensic risks drastically.