Customs and Medical Negligence Claims

When Proscribed
As doctors and physicians, your patients expect you to be aware of certain protocols. In case you deviate from these protocols, then you will be subject to medical negligence claims. The basis of such claims is that in deviating from the rules, you have caused them considerable harm and suffering. There is really no issue here because the medical community is all too aware that they deviate from such rules at their own peril. Except for one case, the case where some of the members of this community see certain rules as nullifying or potentially nullifying customs they hold dear in their heart.

Take the following case. Now, it may be the custom where you grew up in that people should not eat a certain kind of meat, say, pork. Now, if you were suddenly confronted with a patient whose condition would be precisely cured by prescribing him to eat pork and only this kind of dish, and you did not inform him of that because of your loyalty to your reservations, then you should at least do so understanding that you can be sued against in case a complication happens. Customs do not excuse a person from the administration of his duty, especially one whose effects is beneficial to a person’s rights and to public policy.

The Need of Proof
Arguing that a deviation from the standard practices of the medical community is justified because of a custom you believe and grew up in will not be immediately palatable to the courts. You can still be demanded medical negligence claims over them. There are two reasons why.

To begin with, not all customs can be practiced with impunity. Those which are contrary to the law, public policy, public order, and morals are rightly banned. If they were not, then all acts, even those which can be termed criminal and harmful, would have to be permitted, even to the demise of the body politic. This obviously cannot be. The principal end of law is precisely the survival of society. It cannot be said to have ordered its own execution. Suicide whether in the body of a person or in the body of society is reprehensible.

Second, even if you can prove that a custom is not contrary to the good sense of the public, you are still beholden to show that such a custom is really a custom. In other words, you have to subject said custom to the courts and let it decide, after examining the evidence, to see whether it is really so. The reason is simple. If it were not required to be proved, then anyone can easily disobey the law and conjure the custom blanket in his defense.