The Health and Disability Commission Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights, applies to teaching (Right 9). Teaching is defined as “teaching includes training providers”. If the patient lacks capacity, then Right 7(4) applies and teaching can only occur if consented by their EPOA or Welfare Guardian or if it is in the patient’s best interest. The commissioner has made it clear that this provision applies to all teaching; medical students PGY1 and 2 and Registrars. Walker at el interpreted the Code as it applies to medical students to mean that they require consent to be involved with patients and that “exceptions to this are very limited, e.g., time-critical situations where a patient is unconscious and the student’s involvement is urgently needed to provide or contribute to life-saving treatment” This paper will argue using the example of learning to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, that if this policy were implemented, no doctor would learn how to care for people with impaired or absent capacity. An alternate approach to addressing the rights of unconscious patients whilst doctors learn essential skills modelled on protocols for research on vulnerable people will be presented.