Shadow lines and scapegoats : medical criminal liability in Italy in the framework of national and international medical guidelines

Abstract

The following article attempts to investigate how medical guidelines originally developed by health professionals serve as a reference point in the practice of medicine and how they have been used by the Italian courts in an effort to blame doctors for a natural event such as a person's death, so as to turn the medical profession into a sort of scapegoat. Guidelines: the definition of guidelines which is often mentioned by international scholars is the one ratified in 1992 by the Institute of Medicine (hereinafter 'IOM') which defines them as 'systematically developed statements to assist practitioners and patients decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinic circumstances'. Sometimes guidelines have been recognised for having an incentivising and promotional effect, in cases when they are used to provide suggested behaviours in the approach to clinical issues, while in other cases, namely when they detail a list of discouraged behaviours, they tend to have a negative effect. More specifically, they are statements of suggested options available to treat a particular condition. [excerpt]