Episode #33
Ep. 33: Consent Under Anesthesia: Dr. Phoebe Friesen on Educational Pelvic Exams and the Limits of Legislative Reform
In this episode, editors Dominik Emalieu de Kadji and Aya Tir invite Dr. Phoebe Friesen, bioethicist at McGill University, to discuss a practice that remains shockingly common in medical education: students performing pelvic exams on anesthetized patients without explicit consent. We explore a variety of topics, including the ethics behind these forms of examinations, the flawed legislative responses across 30 U.S. states, and why institutional reform, not individual blame, is essential. Given that research shows that over half of Canadian medical students have done these exams without proper consent, this episode constitutes a crucial conversation about informed consent, power dynamics in medical training, and balancing physician education with patient autonomy.
