무면허 의료행위 처벌규정 개선방안 = Improvement of Punishment Regulations for Unlicensed Medical Practices

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The recent shift in the medical paradigm leads to a request for a regulatory paradigm shift in the criminal regulation of medical practices, one that expands freedom while simultaneously reducing the scope of prohibition. In other words, criminal regulations on unlicensed medical practice should be relaxed. Legislation should be established to broaden the scope of medical practice permitted not only with an authorized medical-related license or qualification, but also without such a license or qualification.
The provisions of punishment for unlicensed medical practices under the current law have the following problems. First, there is a risk that the scope of the prohibition may be excessively broad. Second, the overall severity of the penalties is too severe. Third, it is difficult to appropriately differentiate punishments by segmenting the types of acts.
I would like to explore ways to improve the regulations on punishment for unlicensed medical practice as follows. First of all, in addition to ‘medical personnel’ under Article 2 of 「Medical Service Act」, even those with authorized medical-related licenses or qualifications should be designated as people exempt from unlicensed medical practice. In addition, by adding ‘causing danger to the public health safety’ as element of the crime, the provision for unlicensed medical practice, which is a crime that requires an abstract danger, should be changed to a crime that requires specific danger. It is necessary to reflect these contents in legislation to reduce the scope of the crime of unlicensed medical practice. Next, the statutory sentence for unlicensed medical practice should be lowered in response to the overall phenomenon of excessive punishment. Finally, the aggravated punishment regulations under 「Act on Special Measures for the Control of Public Health Crimes」 should be integrated into the penalties under 「Medical Service Act」, but the constituent requirements and statutory sentences should be revised to provide appropriate differentiation of the statutory punishment corresponding to the extent of illegality of the act.