Since July 2015, a German patient facing a planned operation of certain kinds has a legal right to an independent second medical opinion. The rule is in the Social Code, § 27b. The second opinion may not come from the doctor or the hospital that would perform the operation. The doctor who recommends the operation must tell the patient about this right, as a rule at least ten working days before the operation. In 2017, the first operations named were the removal of tonsils and of the uterus.