Medical Negligence Essay

Medical Negligence

It was rightly said by Richard Seizer “If people understood that doctors weren't divine, perhaps the odor of malpractice might diminish.” For a patient, the doctor is like God. And, the almighty can never commit any mistake but that is what the patient thinks or believes. In reality, doctors are human beings. And, to err is human. Doctors may commit a mistake, but committing a mistake due to one’s own carelessness is defined as negligence. The Black law dictionary definition of negligence “conduct, whether of action or omission, which may be declared and treated as negligence without any argument or proof as to the particular surrounding circumstances, either because it is in violation of statue or valid municipal ordinance

Existence of legal duty: Whenever a layman approaches a person who possess certain skill, or knowledge, the other party is then under an implied legal duty to act in such a manner so as to protect that person to his greatest effort and extent. The medical profession is one such section of society on which such a duty has been imposed in the strictest sense. Every time a patient visits a doctor for his ailments he does not enter into any written contract for care, but there is an implied contract and any lack of proper care can make the erring doctor liable for breach of professional duty. And if the doctor is incompetent to perform his duty it accounts for

It is expected that medical practitioners should abide by these code of medical ethics, it is an obligation on the part of medical practitioner to fulfill certain rights and expectations of the patients. But there is fast spreading professional misconduct amongst the medical practitioners. The unethical practice has gone to a level where the basic purpose of medial profession i.e. service to humanity fails. Few unethical practices like fee sharing or cut practice, prescribing particular company’s medicine for his personal monitory gains, are openly discussed among medical practitioners but they never come to surface due to lack of concrete proof. This type of unethical practice has led to deterioration of this profession, which was once considered as a noble profession. Commercialization is the new boom in the society, honest professions are also part of this commercialization be it teaching, medical, law etc. No professional cares about of ethics or etiquette, the main objective of every professional is to derive maximum profit on the cost of the