Criminal liability of medical workers for professional crimes: a new approach
An approach to prosecuting medical workers for professional crimes is predetermined by the peculiarities of medical activities. The latter is inevitably associated with the risk of bodily harm or death and is aimed at the most important benefits of the individual. It is substantiated that, in most cases, the criminal liability of medical workers should occur only for causing grievous bodily harm or death of a person. The list of other criminal law prohibitions should be strictly limited. It is argued that Art. 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation should not be applied to medical workers because this application is selective and depends on the discretion of a law enforcer. Article 235 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation should be amended or cancelled since it does not distinguish dubious methods from generally recognized medical procedures and equates unqualified persons to persons who have received a medical degree but do not have a license for medical activities. An initiative to amend the rules of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation providing for liability of medical workers for professional crimes is considered. It is argued that such an initiative is not able to solve the existing problems of criminal law assessment of medical workers' deeds.