Medical Teamwork and The Principle of Reliance-A Comparative Study of the Law in Taiwan and in Germany
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
CHO, Yu-Hsuan
Abstract
In light of the ever changing medical technics, complicated medical teamwork is a type of medical practice that occurs more and more in the medical scene. When malpractice responsibility arises from the teamwork, how to distribute the responsibility? Is everyone responsible for every part of the teamwork? How far is the range of each teamworker’s responsibility? Those are questions to which we must attach importance. If every teamworker is held responsible for every part of the teamwork, it would not be reasonable, because a man’s ability is not unlimited. Asking teamworkers to take too much responsibility would make people avoid work that needs cooperation to accomplish. This is no good for the advancement of human society. We have to find a way to define the boundary of every teamworker’s responsibility, so that they won’t shoulder too much burden. If we apply the principle of reliance (der Vertrauensgrundsatz) to medical practice, it would turn out that when a participant has done what he should do, then he can hold the belief that others will get their assignment done with due diligence. Therefore, the principle of reliance can lead to the reasonable range of responsibility. However, if this principle is misused, patients’ rights and interests will be affected. To avoid the misuse of the principle of reliance, we must find out a set of precise and concrete rules when we apply this principle. This thesis starts from the history and definition of the principle of reliance. From its origin and its role in the criminal system to its application in the medical practice. Then follows the exposition of how we apply the principle of reliance in different kinds of medical teamwork—typical cooperation, untypical cooperation, horizontal cooperation, and vertical cooperation. Through the observation on the judicial rulings in Germany and Taiwan, we can have a rather concrete understanding of the highly professional and varied medical teamwork and the judicial notions within. The author induces these notions, compares them and gives commentary. Among the different kinds of medical cooperations, untypical cooperation (the doctors don’t have the cooperant understanding with each other and they don’t have to depend on each other’s specialty to give diagnoses and treatments. However, casual events e.g. the patient freely shifts to another doctor make the situation virtually cooperant.) is an important topic worthy of more study, yet hasn’t got much attention. Is the principle of reliance applicable in this area? If it’s applicable, how to apply it? Both the protection of patient’s interests and the reasonable definition of medical teamworker’s responsibility are important. The application rules of the principle of reliance in the medical arena must be made clear and precise through the effort of judicial and medical professionals.
Subjects
medical teamwork
boundary of responsibility
the principle of reliance
typical cooperation
untypical cooperation
horizontal cooperation
vertical cooperation
SDGs
Type
thesis
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