Question: ‘In establishing the standard of professional conduct that ought be reasonably adopted by doctors, common law does little more than articulate standards adopted by doctors themselves, it does not impose those of its own.’ Discuss the accuracy of this statement.
Answer: This statement is concerned with the discussion of standard of care. An important point to note when discussing standard of care is that, the standard to which a doctor will be judged is not going to be the same as that of the ordinary reasonable man, who has no expertise in medicine. A doctor is under a duty to conform to the ordinary standards of the profession. Legally this has been defined in Bolam v Fiern Hospital Management [1957] WLR 582. In this case Lord Justice McNair stated that “The test is the standard of the ordinary skilled man exercising and professing to have that special skill, a man need not posses the highest expert skill” (Davies P195). Although on ethical point of view “judges are not qualified to make professional judgements on the practices of other learne......(short extract)
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Details: - Mark: 65% | Course: Medical Law | Year: 2nd/3rd | Words: 1861 | References: Yes | Date written: February, 2003 | Date submitted: October 20, 2008 | Coursework ID: 159
