It would be rightfully called BATTERY.  An EMT can NOT touch a patient without asking permission to do so.  If they do, it's BATTERY.  That said, your condemnation of a specific word choice, and through that, a condemnation of all thoughts connected to it is really as knee-jerk as if the original writer had intended a not-factual statement.  We ALL need to step away from the microscope; it's much more fundamental then it made out to be.  WWG1WG ALL.