Doctors in Spanish criminal law: medical criminal responsibility for deaths and injuries caused by negligence in present-day Spain.
The doctor who makes a mistake can be taken before a criminal judge in present-day Spain. In this paper, I explore some of the articles that refer to doctors' practices in the Spanish Criminal Code, namely article 142.1 (negligent homicide, considered as a major offence), article 152.3 (negligent injury, considered as a less serious offence), as well as the evolution in the views of medical negligence in the last ten years in Spain. Then, I develop a statistical study of three main aspects, namely the number of reports and lawsuits that have been recorded, the number of criminal proceedings that have been undertaken, and the number of judgments that have acquitted or convicted a doctor. This leads to an analysis of the consequences of the application of the system, as well as its effects on insurance policies. In the last section of my paper, I offer some conclusions.
Rodríguez-Vázquez
Virgilio
V
Department of Criminal Law, University of Vigo, Campus Universitario, Spain.
D006801:Humans; D016365:Liability, Legal; D008318:Malpractice / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D013030:Spain