Frankly, Im both mystied and appalled by the handling of this situation. If the consent process had been honored, the entire situation could have been avoided. Now its rife with questionable ethical behavior by many parties: the physician for failing to explain the surgery and enlisting the sons cooperation in coercing the patient into surgery; the orthopedic surgeon (for certainly there had to be one) for performing the surgery with nothing but an absentee sons verbal permission; the nurse for threatening Mrs. Jones, medicating her coercively, and failing to report the situation up the line; the son for failing to advocate for his mother and for helping to coerce herand then threatening to exploit the situation for money. Finally