Health care and the legal profession

Abstract

The medical practitioner today is faced with a myriad of laws and regulations which aim at bringing health issues within their scope and effect. For the most part, such laws cannot be interpreted in a vacuum but, rather, must respect and reflect the guiding principles of medical ethics. Thus, the rights of a Doctor are qualified by the rights of his patient. These rights are not antagonistic but complementary in, for example, the principles of professional secrecy, of access to recent medical technology and treatment, or the freedom to exercise one's profession. From another perspective, the medical practitioner owes his patient a duty of care and a breach of this duty renders the practitioner liable to damages. A medical practitioner may (invariably) have contact with the law or legal institutions not only in the observance of rules and regulations affecting his practice, but also in the role of court expert, witness, or defendant.