Alan_Gunn comments on Useless Medical Disclaimers - Less Wrong

16 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 19 March 2007 04:48PM

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Comment author: Alan_Gunn 19 March 2007 05:45:35PM 2 points [-]

I once had a medical procedure preceded by this oral warning by the doctor: "Are there risks? Sure. But the risk is a lot greater if we don't do it." Concise and helpful; why say more? (Rhetorical question--you have to say more, even if it's less useful, or the lawyers will get you. Someday, somewhere, a lawyer is going to base a case on a warning's being too strong, and so discouraging the plaintiff from doing something that would have helped.)