Review article
CRIMINAL OFFENSE OF MEDICAL MALPRACTICE (Normative aspects of medical treatment)
Nina Mladinić
; University Department of Forensic Sciences, University of Split
Ivan Vukušić
; University of Split Law School
Stjepan Bekavac
; University Department of Forensic Sciences, University of Split
Abstract
Healthcare is one of the risky activities represented by the so-called socially permissible risk, because at any moment they can result in consequences harmful to people’s lives and health. In order to highlight the role and responsibility of healthcare workers in the Croatian criminal legislation, a special chapter of criminal offenses is dedicated to those against human health, among which in practice the offense of medical malpractice is the most common. However, as the general public believes that every error in medicine is also a criminal offense of a healthcare worker, the work is dedicated to elucidating the rules of their criminal liability. With regard to the vagueness of the concepts of medical malpractice and the application of different legal and medical standards, the legal features of the criminal offense of medical malpractice are analyzed, along with the presentation of two different normative systems of criminal liability of healthcare professionals and the presentation of court practice in the Republic of Croatia. The analysis of the normative framework of the act of medical malpractice includes the presentation of the modalities of the act or omission and the consequences of that act and the issue of problematic conditions for the punishment of the perpetrator. The conditions for the existence of causation between the action or omission of the health care worker and the harmful consequences and forms of his guilt were specially analyzed, because the research of court practice shows that this is the most important reason for the difficulty in proving the criminal offense of medical malpractice.
Keywords
medical error; medical malpractice; healthcare worker; criminal liability; causation
Hrčak ID:
319422
URI
Publication date:
19.7.2024.
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