Independence and Relation of the Rules and Conditions of Criminal and Civil Liability of Physician towards Patients

Since the rules and conditions of the criminal and civil responsibility of the doctor in the current laws of Iran are collected in a unified law, i.e. the Islamic Penal Code approved in 2012, in some writings, the aforementioned rules are mixed. Despite this, the said rulings are independent of each other and there is no connection between them. Therefore, the necessity and importance of the present research is evident. This research, especially emphasizing the common nature of the institution of dowry, confirms the fact that most of the rulings of dowry follow the rules of civil liability.

The present research was compiled with the qualitative research method and content analysis and by collecting information from library sources and referring to laws and legal articles.

The results of the research indicate that the Islamic Penal Code approved in 2013 is in harmony with the legal principles and jurisprudence foundations in the position of separating the boundaries of two types of civil and criminal responsibility of the doctor towards the patients: separating the nature and effects of the patient’s consent from the condition of the doctor’s acquittal. And paying attention to the difference in the concept of fault in criminal and civil law is one of the strengths of the law.

By criticizing and analyzing the legal thoughts about the legal responsibility of doctors, it seems that some of the rules of the civil liability of doctors have been mixed with the punishments. In addition, the provisions of the law are flawed and ambiguous in some cases: it is objectionable to apply imprisonment in the case of the patient’s death due to medical malpractice, if the doctor’s malice or the commission of a criminal offense is not evident. Therefore, the application of Article 616 of the Penal Law approved in 2006 is excluded from cases of civil fault and in these cases only the guarantee of ransom is established. In addition, the defects and ambiguity related to the determination of illegitimate medical practices can be resolved by passing special laws.