Medical malpractice requires four elements. Which is NOT one of them?

• A. Damages
• B. Dereliction
• C. Informed consent
• D. Duty

Answer: (C)

Medical malpractice claims are built on four elements: a duty owed to the patient, a breach of that duty, causation linking the breach to harm, and damages resulting from that harm. Informed consent is essential to patient autonomy and is a separate legal and ethical obligation, but it is not part of the four elements used to establish malpractice. If consent was not properly obtained, that can lead to a different legal claim (such as lack of informed consent or battery) or influence whether a duty was breached, but the foundational four elements focus on the provider’s conduct and the resulting harm. Therefore, informed consent is not one of the four elements.