Law And Ethics In Medical Practice: A Critical Medico-Legal Analysis
- IJLLR Journal
- Feb 11
- 2 min read
Sornalakshmi VS, The Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University
ABSTRACT
Both a moral and legal framework are meant to safeguard patients’ welfare and to moderate professional behaviour. Ethics in medicine supplies moral guidance for practice, one rooted in principles such as respect for human dignity, patient autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. In contrast, law imposes enforceable duties through statutes, judicial precedents and regulatory mechanisms. Over the years, with the increasing commercialization of health care, rapid technology progress, heightened patient awareness (and as a result also expanded court intervention more than ever), the law and ethics of medical practice have become more complex than ever. At times it can be contentious indeed. This article has performed a medico-legal analysis and it has examined a medico-legal position at the junction of law and medical practice. It addresses the translation of ethical principles at different contexts into legal duties, especially in domains like informed consent, confidentiality, standard of care, medical negligence, and professional accountability.
The paper examines the degree to which ethical behaviour is buttressed by legal frameworks, and where the legal obligations of compliance may be perceived to lack ethical quality. Some special focus is given on the Indian medico-legal landscape—constitutional guarantees, consumer protection jurisprudence, criminal liability in the context of medical negligence, and professional disciplinary mechanisms, in addition to drawing the comparative analysis of international benchmarks of ethical standards and judicial practices. The article also considers the potential emerging ethical and legal issues posed by the advances that contemporary medicine is now bringing to the medical industry, including artificial intelligence and digital health technologies, end-of-life choices, reproductive technologies and the growing role of the market in the delivery of quality care. It underscores the role of the judiciary as a reconciler between patient rights and professional autonomy, and makes sense of how ethical norms can turn such into legal realities and become actionable norms through reasoned adjudication.
Keywords: Medical law, medical ethics, duty of care, informed consent, confidentiality, patient rights, medical negligence, malpractice, professional misconduct, hospital liability.
