The Problematic Aspects of Compensation for Damage Caused by a Doctor’s Omission in Medical Law
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60131/jlaw.1.2025.9279Keywords:
Medical Law, Doctor’s Omission, Compensation For Damage, Causal Link, Burden of Proof, Loss of Chance.Abstract
The resolution of disputes arising within the framework of medical law is often associated with significant difficulties, especially when the damage results not from an act but from a doctor’s omission. Even in cases where unlawfulness and fault are clearly established, but a causal link cannot be proven, the physician may be released from liability. In such cases, the central question is whether the harmful outcome could have been avoided if the physician had taken a specific action. Answering this question becomes complicated by the inherent limitations of medicine to predict how a patient’s health condition would have evolved had the appropriate standard of care and treatment been followed.
This paper analyzes the problematic aspects of compensation for damage caused by a doctor’s omission and focuses on the following key issues: the scope of the duty to treat, the difficulties in establishing causality, the allocation of the burden of proof, and the challenges related to the assessment of damages. Through doctrinal and comparative analysis, the paper explores whether theories such as the loss of chance doctrine might offer a fairer approach to compensation.
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