Medical law and Ethics

Introduction

Medical Law deals with the ethical and philosophical issues medical profession encounters during the course of treatment of patients . There is no separate legislation as such but it encompasses contract law , tort law and criminal law mainly and in addition administrative law procedural law , trusts , conflicts of laws , labour law , and personal and intellectual property law . All these relating to the human body

recognised as an immensely complex index of social attitudes , and ambivalence , cultural expression , and expectations , public representations , and regulation (Morgan 2001

3 ) Medical Law is not

br a subject but a responsibility and largely is a process of naming ,blaming ,claiming and declaiming each having ethical and philosophical dimensions (Morgan 2001

4

Medical Ethics

Medical Law can be construed as body of medical ethics giving rise to moral values conflicting with medical cases and covers many principles in the related branches of health care ethics and nursing ethics . Many a time medical community is confronted with issues touching the values of individual patient , family and non-medical community

The values arsing out of medical ethics are

1 ) Beneficence (Salus aegroti suprema lex

Best interest of the patient should be the utmost motive in the mind of the medical practitioner while treating a patient

2 ) Non-maleficence (Primum non nocere

Doing no harm under any circumstances should be the maxim for the medical profession

3 ) Autonomy (Voluntas aegroti suprema lex

Freedom should be available to patients to avail or decline a line of treatment

4 ) Justice

Optimum use of health resources which are scarce to be made available to the most deserving cases

5 ) Dignity

Dignity of the patient and the practitioner should not be sacrificed in the process of treatment

6 ) Truthfulness and honesty

This is arising out of concept of informed consent ' dictated by the historical events of Nuremberg trials and Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Often it becomes difficult to rigidly apply these values as they come into conflict with reality mostly concerning the patients ' well being even if it means that patient should die for good

In the United Kingdom Good Medical Practice guidelines have been given by General Medical Council to act under these situations

Philosophies in decision making in health care by Professionals managers and policy makers

Deontology

It is the concept of duty or moral obligation (Webster 's 1978 ) If person acts wrongly for good and rightly for a negative outcome , it is a violation of deontology . The theory of deontology was propounded by German Philosopher Immanuel Kant . He insisted that duty must be absolute and categorical which must be always carried out uninfluenced by circumstances . What is right must be upheld . This kind of duty is unlike contingent duty to be performed depending upon the need . This absolute duty called categorical imperative has been prescribed by Kant as follows

One 's action should be guided by the principles which should be universally applicable to all keeping in view that mankind is both means as well as an end and as if one...