The Inappropriate or Negligent Medical Treatment in Albanian Criminal Legislation

Abstract

We are all testimonials for the failure or on-go of the medical treatment and of all the medicine in general, even though we are in a century of considerable scientific evolution. The inevitable involvement of doctors in the everyday life of human beings, leads to the necessity that people must have legal protection from medical offense. The most important right, the right to live, requires that doctors and medical staff have to protect and respect the life of the patients, but the careless treatment and medical neglect in many cases has lead to permanent injuries of human health or lost of life. The cases that have been submitted in the court have been suspended, discontinued or the doctors have been declared innocent, because of impossibility to prove that the pretended medical offense has lead to severe impairment of health or even worse to death. According to this situation hundreds of cases have not been reported, and as a result the repetition of these medical offenses and lack of awareness from the medical staff, regarding their professional liability. Taking into account that the evidence of the Albanian criminal legislation provides de jure protection for its patients, in reality this protection de facto does not operate properly, i have introduced my project which is divided into 3 parts/sections. In the first part I have mentioned the evolution of medical outlook, from the antiquity to modern times, the international devices that protect and guarantee the freedoms and right of the patients and the modifications in the relationships between doctors and patients. Further, in the second part I have been focusing on "negligent medical treatment" in our legislation, and in the experience of some more European countries and more. In the third and last part I have submitted the whole economical, social factors that do affect the actualization of this offense otherwise known as "medical neglect" and the possible preventive provisions of this offense.