The legal understandings on the obligatory explanation of medical practice

Kim, Hyang Mi

Abstract

Judging the medical disputes which has been rapidly increasing recently, doctors' neglecting the obligatory explanation of medical practice has been the hot issues. Accordingly, medical practitioners are to have a growing concern about the Obligatory Explanation of Medical Practice. The key point of legal judgement on the Obligatory Explanation of Medical Practice is whether or not it would be enough in contents and appropriate in nature. As the patients have got more and more taken interest in the right to know and right of self determination in the practice of medicine, the importance of obligatory explanation of the diseases and the medical treatments, particularly invasive operations, which would be given to the patients could not be overemphasized in the present society. By the reflections of the present medical environment, trend of adjudicating the medical dispute in the court of justice shows that the doctors should give the detailed explanations of medical practice which would be given to the patients lest the right to know and right of self determination of the patients should not be violated. The Obligatory Explanation of Medical Practice is not only the way of protecting the right to know and right of self determination of the patients but also, in a way, the best means of mutual understanding and communication between patients and doctors which could guarantee the necessary environment for the good medical practices. In addition, satisfiable human relationship between patients and doctors which would be formed through the process of The Obligatory Explanation of Medical Practice could work as the excellent methods of the preparation for preventing and solving the medical disputes during or after the medical practices.