Dutchak S. Ensuring the protection of patients’ rights in Ukraine: the criminal-law aspect

Dutchak S. R. Ensuring the protection of patients’ rights in Ukraine: the criminal-law aspect. – Qualifying scientific work as of manuscript. Thesis for a Candidate Degree in Law (Doctor of Philosophy) in specialty 12.00.08 – Criminal Law and Criminology, Criminal Execution Law. – Higher Educational Institution «National Academy of Management». – Kyiv, 2018. The dissertation is devoted to the complex analysis of the institute of ensuring the protection of patients’ rights in Ukraine in the criminal law aspect. The essence and significance of criminal law enforcement of patients ‘rights in Ukraine is defined as a scientifically substantiated integral system of criminal-political and criminal-law measures aimed at ensuring effective criminal law influence on violation of patients’ rights. In the correlation of the concept «victim» in relation to the violation of the rights of the patient in a broad sense, it is determined that the primary for a criminal-legal assessment is the definition of a patient as a direct victim of a crime. In the course of the study the methodological foundations of criminal law protection of the patient’s rights were considered. The historical model of the criminal liability of the doctor for the damage caused to the patient, in particular, the application as a punishment of lifelong removal from the profession is revealed. It was clarified that the object of criminal legal protection of patients’ rights is the social relations by which the patient-doctor relationship is being secured. An important direction of the dissertation research is the analysis of political and legal measures. Criminal law description of the crime is provided. The competitor identified the characteristics of the special subject of the investigated crime - a medical worker. On the basis of the study, the author’s proposal was to foresee an independent crime of violating the rights of the patient to replace the remaining crimes, which describe at the level of the objective side of the violation of patients’ rights. The main objective of the criminal law policy in the area of combating the violation of the rights of the patient is determined by an increase in the level of social trust of the population to the state. The main directions of criminal-law policy in this sphere are proposed in dissertation. A number of practical recommendations for improving the system of criminal law protection of patient rights in Ukraine are offered. Two practical ways of improving the practical implementation of the criminal legal protection of patients’ rights have been formed – operative (in relation to the improvement of the provisions of the current Article 141 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and promising (oriented on the principles of saving repression and humanization of punishment in accordance with the Criminal Justice Reform in Ukraine).