Legal status as of 1.08.2008.
The book discusses the issues of the criminal law protection of the patient's right to consent to medical interventions undertaken in relation to him or her and his or her right to oppose them. It places emphasis on the differentiation of consequences depending on whether the medical action is initially or secondarily legal. The aspect of the compatibility of existing normative solutions with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland was also taken into account.
The patient's right to self-determination has not been and still is not fully honoured in practice, so the study may serve to move away from a paternalistic model of medicine towards a medicine based on patient empowerment.
The position is primarily addressed to lawyers, both theoreticians and practitioners. However, the vast majority of the issues discussed in it may be of interest to doctors and other medical practitioners, in particular those involved in medical court jurisprudence.