Doctors’ Professional Activities During the State of the Epidemic – Selected Issues Cover Image

Czynności zawodowe lekarzy w czasie stanu epidemii – problemy wybrane
Doctors’ Professional Activities During the State of the Epidemic – Selected Issues

Author(s): Monika Łątka-Płachta
Subject(s): Health and medicine and law
Published by: Polska Akademia Umiejętności / Krakowski Instytut Prawa Karnego Fundacja
Keywords: conflict of duties; makeshift equipment; triage guidelines;

Summary/Abstract: The ongoing epidemic has changed the socially acceptable risk and, as a result, the rules of dealing with legal goods. However, the doctor’s criteria of priority cannot be arbitrary ones, i.e., the ones that violate achievements such as gender or racial equality. These criteria cannot include “buddy-buddy” rules, i.e., rules that allow for the acceleration of medical treatment due to the existing sympathy between the doctor and the patient. At the same time, heroism cannot be required of a doctor. This means that in a situation in which the rules of dealing with a legal good (including the rules of priority of duty) do not prescribe a specific action, a doctor may proceed to save a person dear to him, instead of a stranger. During an epidemic, when the speed of triage is of no small importance, such a possibility that someone who is not a professional would be involved in such assessment is most acceptable, especially in the face of a change in the rules of dealing with legal goods. However, the behavior of such a person cannot be evaluated on an equal footing with that of a professional, as they are not equally qualified.

  • Issue Year: 25/2021
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 37-54
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish