It has been generally assumed that reporting by patient next-of-kin has increased following widespread media coverage that spurs public outrage surrounding medical error [ 5], and that this in turn has fueled physician prosecutions.
A measure passed by the Legislature in 1985, which addressed the withdrawal of treatment for terminally ill patients, created "public policy," the majority said, that in effect shielded a physician from prosecution for helping hasten the death of a consenting, rational, terminal patient.
Conclusions: Other than criminal prosecution, physicians are not opposed to involvement of the legal justice system in preventing alcohol and drug abuse during pregnancy.
There is evidence that elderly patients are unnecessarily prescribed PPIs at the time of hospital admission as "gastroprotection" with the sole aim of avoiding potential legal prosecution of physicians in charge for ignoring medical care [ 13, 14].
Second, it is unknown what fraction of prosecutions results from physician reports vs. next-of-kin or other reports and therefore if the source of the report is associated with the likelihood of prosecution.
The coalition parties in the government, therefore, developed a proposal giving immunity from prosecution to those physicians whose cases had come before a review committee and where the committee had decided that the physician had acted with due care.
These cases are discussed in detail leading up to the change in the law in 2001 in the Netherlands – legalising euthanasia-stating the requirements of care to which physicians must abide to avoid prosecution and delineates the reporting procedures.
Later in the afternoon, as police officers, an emergency medical technician and a physician's assistant took the stand, the prosecution was able to underscore its contention that Mr. Zimmerman's injuries were far from life-threatening.
Because reporting by physicians has increased while all other reporting has remained constant, the increase in physician reporting likely fuels the increase in prosecutions.
But subjecting physicians to harassment and the fear of possible prosecution for helping to alleviate their patients' pain is law enforcement malpractice of the first order.
