The value of consent is rightly praised, as it establishes the patient as a subject of law and not only as a body to be cared for. Consent gives the impression of re equilibrating the relationship between patient and doctor by introducing fundamental rights. This celebration of consent masks the flaws that distort and can even vitiate it and that can be noted from the beginning in the stage of delivery of information up until the final stage of recording it. These pitfalls range, on the one hand, from instrumentalizing consent in court procedures (both on the part of health care institutions and of patients), to the even more serious risk of renouncing care, or, conversely, of consenting and feeling resentful. This article argues in favour of raising consent above a simple procedural obligation to make it the pivotal point of the therapeutic alliance and thus to restore the close relation between consent and human dignity, thus avoiding the danger of sacrificing protection on the altar of autonomy.