Medical Liability in Indonesia: Overview and Regulatory Trends

Abstract

This book chapter examines how medical liability is regulated in the Indonesian legal civil system and the regulatory trends of medical liability in Indonesia. Medical liability as an issue is gaining prominence in Indonesia as there are more concerns raised on the need to protect patients’ rights, and the increasing activism of doctors and other health professionals in Indonesia. There was a Dutch influence in the formation and progression of Indonesian medical law in Indonesia in the beginning. Such colonial influence began to diminish in the 1990s in medical law as evidenced in the usage of code of ethics for medical professionals and increasing regulations on the protection of patients’ rights by the Ministry of Health. The patient-doctor relationship is regulated by the code of ethics. Meanwhile, there is still a strong reference to Indonesian civil code and Indonesian criminal code in verdicts and cases of medical liability in Indonesia, both codes of which were legal transplants during the Dutch colonial administration period. Up to now, Dutch legal terms are still frequently used in the Supreme Court and Constitutional Court in Indonesia in medical liability cases. By investigating various court decisions relevant to medical liability issue in Indonesia and looking into trends of medical liability in health and medical regulations in Indonesia in the past ten years, the book chapter presents substantive findings based on desk research.KeywordsMedical liabilityIndonesiaPatients’ rightsRegulatory analysis