Negligence

It was settled law that the standard of care to be applied to a surgeon was that of the reasonable surgeon exercising and professing to have the necessary skill to undertake the surgery in question. The starting point in considering whether there had been negligence on the part of a medical practitioner was to determine whether he had acted in accordance with a responsible body of practitioners skilled in the particular medical field in question. Further, in the vast majority of cases, the fact that distinguished experts in the field were of a particular opinion would demonstrate the reasonableness of that opinion. In particular, where there were questions of assessment of the relative risks and benefits of adopting a particular medical practice, a reasonable view necessarily presupposed that the relative risks and benefits had been weighed by the experts in forming their opinions. However, if, in a rare case, it could be demonstrated that the professional opinion was not capable of withstanding