Definition of Health Crimes

The legal concept of crime is applicable to specific areas in the different legislative codes. In this way, there are crimes against property, against environment, the heritage and, as in the case at hand, crimes related to health activities, which are framed within a generality, crimes against public health.

Who may be affected by the different figures criminals in the field of health are health professionals, that is, doctors, nurses or assistants. The jurisprudence that encompasses these acts is known by the name of legal or forensic medicine and the incorporated precepts are intended to facilitate the action of justice.

Health crimes

- Trafficking, hiding or manipulating utensils typical of medical activity.

- Deliberately spreading an infectious disease.

- Commit some imprudence professional, for example causing harm that is not voluntary but could have been prevented.

- Act negligently in the exercise of the medical profession.

- Practice the medical profession without the relevant qualification and accreditation, which is commonly known as professional intrusion.

- Deny healthcare to a sick person.

-Not adequately inform the patient or act opposing the recognized rights of him, as it is necessary to take into account that there are so-called Patient Rights, as well as the Rights of the child hospitalized. In this sense, it is worth remembering that healthcare professionals must respect the confidentiality of the patient in everything related to her illness or hospital stay.

The historical origin of health crimes

In general, all doctors acquire an ethical commitment to carry out their profession, which is known internationally as the Hippocratic Oath. This formula and its moral implications in the exercise of the medical profession was incorporated into the Roman Law, which establishes the rules of action of the doctor and his responsibility civil or criminal.

In this sense, the Lex Aquilia of the Right Romano establishes the concept of responsibility for their own actions, a circumstance that affected the doctors and midwives in the exercise of their profession in the event of committing any irresponsibility (one's own law contemplated the corresponding sanctions). This conception of the Lex Aquilia applied to the health field is the basic legal source of health crimes that have been introduced subsequently.