의료에 있어서의 윤리와 법*

Ethical issues in medicine are often accompanied by legal issues. While it is important to take the legal aspects of a medical ethical problem into consideration, following the law does not always ensure an ethical outcome. Moreover, not all ethical issues in medical practice have a legal component, and the law is limited procedurally as a means of dispute resolution. In this article we argue that medical professionals should have a general understanding of both medical ethics and medical law and have the ability to analyze the ethical and legal issues involved in medical practice. Furthermore, we claim that improving physician-patient communication is an important goal of medical ethics education not only from an ethical point of view, but also from a legal point of view, insofar as it may help to prevent future lawsuits against physicians.