Truth, Trust, and Confidence in Surgery, 1890–1910: Patient Autonomy, Communication, and Consent

During the late nineteenth century, there was a dramatic rise in the number of surgical procedures that doctors were prepared to attempt. This article discusses why there was also a rise in the number of people who were prepared to submit to all of these operations. Contrary to popular assumptions, many nineteenth- century patients did not lack effective autonomy. Their consent to surgery could not be taken for granted, especially as surgery was expensive compared with many other forms of treatment. Persuading patients that surgery could help them was an active process, and patients and their friends were often provided with pertinent information, especially in cases in which the doctors themselves had doubts about an operation. Faith in the theoretical possibility of safe surgery may have been just as important in contributing to doctors’ increased willingness to operate as any improvement in practical results. A key factor in the rising popularity of surgery with both doctors and patients was not so much better surgical results as it was confidence in the possibility of better surgical results and the ways in which this confidence was communicated from doctors to patients.