Medical liability and judicialization in the relationship between doctor and patient

Abstract

This paper presents a theoretical discussion followed by a proposition about the problem of excessive judicialization of the relationship between doctors and patients. It points out the transposition of the power of medicine for law in a process of growth regarding the number of avoidable demands that ignore social debate, favorable to the emancipatory design provided by dialogue and ethical reflection. We discuss medical liability and the medical power in an asymmetric structure to the patient regarding a correlation between power and knowledge placed in the speech according to Foucault’s approach. Following that, we point out the right to equality, in accordance with human rights, suggesting the implementation of such ideas in the social and medical education in order to value the roles of patient and doctor as active subjects of the attempt to achieve consensus, aiming to observe the principles of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights.