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The service which medical & legal professionals render is the noblest.
Medico legal issues examine how the law regulates medical practice.
Definition:
The guidelines of medico legal work Delhi Government 1983, defines the
medico-legal case as A case of injury or ailment, where an attending doctor after
taking history and clinical examination of the patient/s, thinks that some
investigations by law enforcing agencies are essential, so as to fix the
responsibility regarding the case in accordance with the law of the land.
The following subjects deal with all the above aspects of Law and medicine &
require Medico-legal expertise:
Forensic Medicine
Medical Jurisprudence
Toxicology
(a) Assault and battery, including domestic violence and child abuse
(b) Accidents like Road Traffic Accidents (RTA), industrial accidents etc.
(c) Cases of trauma with suspicion of foul play
(d) Electrical injuries
(e) Poisoning, Alcohol Intoxication
(f) Undiagnosed coma
(g) Chemical injuries
(h) Burns and Scalds
(j) Sexual Offences
(k) Criminal abortions
(l) Attempted suicide
(m) Cases of asphyxia as a result of hanging, strangulation, drowning,
suffocation etc.
(n) Custodial deaths
(o) Death in the operation theatre
(p) Unnatural deaths
(q) Death due to Snake Bite or Animal Bite
(r) Fire Arm injuries
(s) Drug overdose
(t) Drug abuse
(u) Dead brought to the Accident and Emergency Dept / MI Room (Found
dead) and deaths occurring within 24 hours of hospitalization without
establishment of a diagnosis
Medico legal experts can provide a link between these two professions for
their smooth & effective functioning in a scientific manner.
Health care has been transformed from an automatic provision for those in
need to a commodity available for commercial sale. The commercialization
of the health sector has had adverse effects on doctor and patient
relationship.
The medical man , instead of a caregiver has become a high profile sales
person ,hand in hand with corporate hospitals.
Today a decline in the standard of the medical profession can be
attributed to increasing number of litigations against doctors - medical
negligence.
Even physician meets the law at every turn.
Every human being enjoys fundamental human rights without any discrimination.
(UDHR Art 3The very basic Right to Life & Personal Liberty includes Right to
Health which strengthens the human right approach to universal access to health
care.It guarantees a life in which inherent dignity & worth of each individual will
receive respect and take care of needs and rights of one another.
Article 5 No one shall be subjected to torture, or to cruel, inhuman and degrading
treatment and so forth
Article 25 of UDHR is concerned with the right to health.
The landmark case Indian Medical Association Vs. V.P.Shantha brought the
medical professionals within the ambit of service as defined in the Consumer
Protection Act, 1986.
Right to respect for the inviolability and integrity of the human being.
On July 21, 1988, the Court of Appeal of California, regarding John Moore vs.
the Regents of the University of California ,concluded that "plaintiff's allegation
of a property right in his own tissues is sufficient as a matter of law".
the practice of obtaining consent for the use of genetic material (such
as DNA) for diagnosis and banking.
use of a person's body without his consent to obtain information about
him invades an area of privacy essential to the maintenance of his
human dignity.
INDIAN LEGISLATIONS :
Medical profession is governed by code of medical ethics and etiquettes laid down
by Medical Council of India.
Cr.p.c Section 39 , the attending MO is legally bound to inform the police about
the arrival of a MLC.
Sec. 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 further provides for the examination
of the arrested person by the registered medical practitioner at the request of the
arrested person.
Insurance companies cover medico-legal issues in some form or the other. For
example, the New India Assurance Company offers the Professional Indemnity
Policy for doctors and medical practitioners. This policy covers liability falling on
them as a result of errors and omissions committed whilst rendering professional
service.
Forensic expert has a humanitarian as well as legal role in context of human right
violation. All these require proper investigation, analysis and documentation.
Role in Organ Donation : The forensic expert plays a significant role in facilitating
organ donation (brain dead and cadaveric) by coordinating between relations, legal
agencies, organ banks and transplant surgeons. INDIA has a flourishing, and illegal,
trade in human organs. And the legislation designed to prevent it is failing.
We should make organ transplants affordable by the average citizen in our public
institutions. But the affection clause is the loophole that actually drives the
entire transplant programme in the country.
In Strangulation, the close examination of ligature mark and the state of structures
in the neck region under the ligature mark provide vital clues as to the method
applied for strangulating the victim.
Every autopsy is important to expose mistakes, to delimit new diseases and new
patterns of disease, and to guide future studies. Morbidity and mortality statistics
acquire accuracy and significance when based on careful autopsies.
DNA Fingerprinting:
Determination of parentage
DNA fingerprinting or DNA profiling or any of the several similar techniques for
analyzing and comparing DNA from separate sources are used especially in law
enforcement to identify suspects from hair, blood, semen, or other biological
materials found at the scene of a violent crime. It depends on the fact that no two
people, save identical twins, have exactly the same DNA sequence. DNA evidence,
apart from its use in criminal law to determine the killer or the rapist, is also
employed for various other purposes. Amongst its varied applications, Paternity
testing, Personal identification (of a mutilated body or skeletal remains), study of
the evolution of the human population and study of inherited diseases like
Alzheimers disease etc. are included.
LIMITATIONS :
Despite their vast benefits to the field of law, medical jurisprudential techniques
are not treated as primary evidence till date. The situation appears hearty only as
regards autopsy reports, which have been given the status of documentary evidence
under the Indian Evidence Act. The present Act continues to treat technical
findings, such as the results of DNA tests, as expert evidence. This situation will
continue till a legislation is drafted and enacted by the Parliament.
The success rate in solving complex cases in Criminal Law has greatly increased
after the discovery and use of DNA evidence technologies. The introduction of
DNA evidence in the field of Criminal law has particularly facilitated convictions
in the matters involving the offence of Rape.
Reduce the unethical practice and improve the doctor patient relationship.
The overall health allocation in our budget is one of the lowest in developing
countries should be increased.
There is a unanimity that medical and forensic evidence plays a crucial role in
helping the courts of law to arrive at logical conclusions. Therefore, the expert
medical professionals should be encouraged to undertake medico legal work.
Dr. Justice V.S Malimath has suggested comprehensive use of forensic science in
crime investigation & amendments in Criminal law.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rao, Dr. S V Joga, Current Issues in Criminal Justice and Medical Law - A
Critical Focus, Eastern Law House Pvt. Ltd., 1999.
Mukherjee JB. Legal aspect of medical practice.J Indian Med Assoc., Vol.
97 no. 11. pp.461-5,474. Nov. 1999
Indian Constitution
http://india.gov.in/citizen/health/medico_legal.php
International Instruments
Dogra T.D.; Lalwani S., Raina A. / OIDA International Journal of
Sustainable Development 02: 01 (2010) 11-15 13
CMAJ ,Vol. 140 ,May 1989
John Moore vs. the Regents of the University of California (B021195 CCA
1988)