Canterbury v. Spence’s Empirical Analysis
464 F.2d 772 · 1972
Citation profile
65 federal appellate · 29 district · 239 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 391 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2023 · most notably Cruzan Ex Rel. Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health (1990), Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (1986)
65 federal appellate · 29 district · 239 state decisions — followed in 43 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Anne Sweeney v. William G Errving · Dombrowski v. Pfister · Schloendorff v. Society of the New York Hospital · Mastro Plastics Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board · Sentilles v. Inter-Caribbean Shipping Corp.
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 391 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the inherent and potential hazards of the proposed treatment, the alternatives to that treatment, if any, and the results likely if the patient remains untreated.”
46 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Viewed from the point at which he had to decide, would the patient have decided differently had he known something he did not know?”
27 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[i]nformed consent is a negligence concept predicated on the duty of a physician to disclose to a patient information that will enable him to `evaluate knowledgeably the options available and the risks attendant upon each' before subjecting that patient to a course of treatment”
25 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.