M@tic medicine assisted by information and communication technology: conflicts, responsibility and liability

Abstract

The term M@TIC, is that which encompasses all Medicine Assisted by Technology on Information and Communication. The development of these techniques brings up many ethical and legal conflicts, mainly because medical science has developed much faster than the law. Justice cannot be properly served if we do not have the regulations to help mankind to avoid aberrant behavior by medical practitioners in this field. M@TIC is still regarded as an experimental research procedure. Not all that is technically feasible is ethically acceptable. There are many potential risks associated with M@TIC and it is largely considered, and so it is understood by doctors, that any damage to the patient would be the fault of the system, never the responsibility of the doctor. It frightens one to think that this fact may be used, in the future, as a shield to protect negligent medical doctors from malpractice suits.