Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Drs Bramhall and Bawa-Garba and the Rightful Domain of the Criminal Law
AU - Ost, Suzanne
PY - 2018/12/23
Y1 - 2018/12/23
N2 - In the wake of two recent high-profile, controversial cases involving the prosecution and conviction of Drs Bramhall and Bawa-Garba, this article considers when it is socially desirable to criminalise doctors’ behaviour, exploring how the matters of harm, public wrongs and the public interest can play out to justify – or not, as the case may be - the criminal law’s intervention. Dr Bramhall branded his initials on patients’ livers during transplant surgery, behaviour acknowledged not to have caused his patients any harm by way of injury to their organs. Dr Bawa-Garba misdiagnosed and failed to properly assess a six-year-old boy with pneumonia and sepsis under her care, who subsequently died. Taking account of contextual and public interest concerns, can and should there be exceptions to imposing criminal liability where a doctor’s behaviour is deemed grossly negligent and a significant contribution to a patient’s death? And is it really appropriate to subject a doctor to penal sanction where he may have committed a private wrong against a patient, but does not set back their interests?
AB - In the wake of two recent high-profile, controversial cases involving the prosecution and conviction of Drs Bramhall and Bawa-Garba, this article considers when it is socially desirable to criminalise doctors’ behaviour, exploring how the matters of harm, public wrongs and the public interest can play out to justify – or not, as the case may be - the criminal law’s intervention. Dr Bramhall branded his initials on patients’ livers during transplant surgery, behaviour acknowledged not to have caused his patients any harm by way of injury to their organs. Dr Bawa-Garba misdiagnosed and failed to properly assess a six-year-old boy with pneumonia and sepsis under her care, who subsequently died. Taking account of contextual and public interest concerns, can and should there be exceptions to imposing criminal liability where a doctor’s behaviour is deemed grossly negligent and a significant contribution to a patient’s death? And is it really appropriate to subject a doctor to penal sanction where he may have committed a private wrong against a patient, but does not set back their interests?
KW - criminal law
KW - criminalising doctors
KW - harm
KW - public wrongs
KW - systemic failings
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2018-105135
U2 - 10.1136/medethics-2018-105135
DO - 10.1136/medethics-2018-105135
M3 - Journal article
VL - 49
SP - 151
EP - 155
JO - Journal of Medical Ethics
JF - Journal of Medical Ethics
SN - 0306-6800
IS - 3
ER -