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Consented: A Doctor's Call to End Medical Violence and Reclaim Patient Autonomy
Not yet published
Expected 14 Apr 26A physician’s bold critique of medical rape culture—and her call for a new model of care that centers consent and empowers patients
Medical culture has a problem with consent—and it’s not just a few bad doctors. That’s the conclusion of Dr. Zed Zha in Consented, a groundbreaking look at how the healthcare industry ignores patients’ agency and perpetuates violence.
Even the best and most caring doctors can fall prey to what Dr. Zha identifies as medical rape culture: a system of beliefs and practices that enable and normalize the violation of patients’ autonomy. Dr. Zha shows how this culture is historically entrenched—from the invention of the speculum to eugenics—and argues that we need a sea change in our healthcare system to stop repeating the same mistakes. She interlaces these hidden histories of medicine with first-hand patient stories and her own personal journey, identifying four key problems of consent within medical
Non-consent (“Doctors know what’s best for the patient.”)
Forced consent (“If patients are noncompliant, their voices cease to matter.”)
Inadequate consent (“Doctors can decide what patients need to know.”)
Contractual consent (“Sign here, then forever hold your peace.”)
This fundamental misunderstanding of consent robs patients of the right to control what happens to their own bodies, and can cause serious harm. Instead, Dr. Zha offers a radical new vision of medical consent culture—one that embraces collectivity, accessibility, and compassion. This provocative book will validate anyone who has felt ignored, gaslight, or violated in the doctor’s office and inspire those working in the healthcare system to push for change.
Medical culture has a problem with consent—and it’s not just a few bad doctors. That’s the conclusion of Dr. Zed Zha in Consented, a groundbreaking look at how the healthcare industry ignores patients’ agency and perpetuates violence.
Even the best and most caring doctors can fall prey to what Dr. Zha identifies as medical rape culture: a system of beliefs and practices that enable and normalize the violation of patients’ autonomy. Dr. Zha shows how this culture is historically entrenched—from the invention of the speculum to eugenics—and argues that we need a sea change in our healthcare system to stop repeating the same mistakes. She interlaces these hidden histories of medicine with first-hand patient stories and her own personal journey, identifying four key problems of consent within medical
Non-consent (“Doctors know what’s best for the patient.”)
Forced consent (“If patients are noncompliant, their voices cease to matter.”)
Inadequate consent (“Doctors can decide what patients need to know.”)
Contractual consent (“Sign here, then forever hold your peace.”)
This fundamental misunderstanding of consent robs patients of the right to control what happens to their own bodies, and can cause serious harm. Instead, Dr. Zha offers a radical new vision of medical consent culture—one that embraces collectivity, accessibility, and compassion. This provocative book will validate anyone who has felt ignored, gaslight, or violated in the doctor’s office and inspire those working in the healthcare system to push for change.
Kindle Edition
Expected publication April 14, 2026
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Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This book was so difficult to read, yet so engrossing and hopeful, as all the best treatises calling for much-needed change are. What was so surprising was the format! Rather than just an endless stream of hard-won statistics and polemic writing, this is best described as creative nonfiction.
Each chapter tackles a different aspect of the harms in medicine, threading together anonymized patient stories, damning facts and figures…and at the end? A fiction. Almost a short story, often written in second-person, about what might happen if everything went right.
Why aren’t more people doing this? Why haven’t I seen this in a book before?
Informative, kind, clear-eyed, and incisive, as all the best doctors are, the author presents an unignorable case. Not only has she identified healthcare’s problems, but presented the solutions.
I received an early copy courtesy of the publishers via Netgalley. All opinions are mine alone.
Each chapter tackles a different aspect of the harms in medicine, threading together anonymized patient stories, damning facts and figures…and at the end? A fiction. Almost a short story, often written in second-person, about what might happen if everything went right.
Why aren’t more people doing this? Why haven’t I seen this in a book before?
Informative, kind, clear-eyed, and incisive, as all the best doctors are, the author presents an unignorable case. Not only has she identified healthcare’s problems, but presented the solutions.
I received an early copy courtesy of the publishers via Netgalley. All opinions are mine alone.
Displaying 1 of 1 review