Is the “ghost surgery” the subject of legal punishment in Korea?

PURPOSE: Recently a controversy has arisen about so-called “ghost surgery” practices, and people have voiced their opinions for legal sanction against such practices, which clearly undermine the foundation of medical ethics. However, there has been a lack of legal basis for punishing those actions. The present study aims to examine which pre-existing legal provisions could be applied to regulate ghost surgery. METHODS: The Korean Medical Service Act has a provision relating to informed consent to inhibit ghost surgery but does not include penalty provisions prohibiting ghost surgery itself. Also, the Korean Supreme Court precedents on this issue have not been settled as of yet. Therefore, this study referred to U.S precedents, law books, and related papers. RESULTS: With respect to ghost surgery, we expect the charges of bodily harm, assault and battery, and fraud could be applied under Korean law, in addition to charges regarding the violation of medical law, such as the omission of entries or false entries in medical records. A patient provides consent to bodily harm prior to surgery, and only the person who is entrusted with such permission can become the operating surgeon in the operating room. CONCLUSION: In other words, even if other medical professionals are present in the operating room, the operating surgeon who received consent must take overall responsibility for the whole process of the surgery. A surgeon should bear in mind that a violation of such duty can constitute a criminal offense.

Precisiones teóricas sobre la subjetivación de la culpa en la mujer criminal / Theoretical precisions about guilt subjectivation in criminal woman / Precisions theoriques sur la subjectivation de la culpabilite chez la femme criminel

En 1916 Freud escribe “Algunos tipos de carácter dilucidados por el trabajo psicoanalítico”, en el cual se desarrollan tres caracterologías que pueden ser leídas como tres momentos de la estructura del acto criminal en relación con la culpa. Esta conceptuali-zación freudiana del criminal contrae problemas no sólo epistemológicos sino en el trabajo clínico dentro de prisión con mujeres, ya que, siguiendo la premisa freudiana, se podría pensar que la mujer estaría determinada a priori como una criminal excepcional, por lo que carecería de los elementos suficientes para experimentar culpa, y por lo tanto para dar un sentido a la sanción penal. Este trabajo propone un acercamiento a la subjetividad femenina buscando la posibilidad de hacer aportaciones al campo del tratamiento penitenciario a partir de la premisa sobre la imperiosidad de que, quien delinque, se asuma como sujeto responsable no sólo de sus actos sino de calidad de sujeto...

In 1916 Freud wrote “Some Character-types met with in Psychoanalytic work”, where three character-types, that can be read as three structural moments of the criminal act relating to the guilt are developed. This Freudian conceptualization of the criminal brings problems either in epistemology as in the clinical work inside women in prisons. Following Freudian premise, it is possible to think that women would be determined a priori as an exceptional crim-inal, reason why women would lack of enough ele-ments to experiment the guilt; in that way, giving a sense to penal punishment. This work proposes an approach to the femininity subjectivity searching the possibility to contribute to field of penitentiary treat-ment, starting with the premise about the imperious-ness that person who commits a crime accept him/her-self as a responsible...

En 1916 Freud écrit “certains sortes de caractères élucidés par le travail psychanalytique ¼, où trois caractérologies sont développées ; caractérologies qui peuvent être lues comme trois moments de la structure de l’acte criminel par rapport à la culpabilité. Cette conceptualisation freudienne du criminel en-traîne de problèmes non seulement épistémologiques mais aussi dans le travail clinique à l’intérieur des prisons des femmes car, d’après la prémisse de Freud, l’on pourrait penser que la femme serait dé-terminée a priori comme un criminel exceptionnel, raison pour laquelle elle manquerait d’éléments suffi-sants pour éprouver de la culpabilité et, en consé-quence, donner du sens à la sanction pénale. Ce travail-ci propose une approche à la subjectivité fémi-nine en cherchant la possibilité de faire des apports au domaine du traitement pénitentiaire à partir de la prémisse sur l’impériosité que celui qui commet un délit s’ajoute en tant que sujet responsable non seu-lement de ces actes mais aussi en qualité de sujet...