Doctors may also be criminals. Mercifully, this is a rare event but no health professional is infallible, mistakes happen and the challenge is to distinguish inadvertence from wilful disregard for the consequences. Healthcare professionals are uneasy about the readiness of the current law to attribute criminal responsibility accompanied by a failure to recognise the highly pressurised context in which sub-standard practice occurs. This article argues that the offence of gross negligence manslaughter is improperly defined and fails to target those doctors whom society should criminalise. Alternatives to gross negligence manslaughter to include culpable homicide adopted in Scotland and the major departure test favoured by New Zealand are considered before advocating a more radical approach—the sliding scale of negligence. Using existing tests in civil and administrative law, a more objective test of gross negligence is proposed, with culpability as a mandatory requirement for a doctor to be convicted of a crime. It is contended the law must move away from the stance a patient’s death is required for medical negligence to become a crime, an outcome bias, to a conduct biased offence. There is no underlying reason why culpable gross negligence causing serious harm should not also be subject to criminal sanction. The recent sentencing guidelines demonstrate the law is sophisticated enough to distinguish reprehensible conduct from careless behaviour. It is now time for the legal test to also acknowledge all the circumstances of the alleged crime.

中文翻译：

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医生感到委屈——他们应该委屈吗？严重疏忽过失杀人和有罪的医生

医生也可能是罪犯。幸运的是，这是一个罕见的事件，但没有健康专业人士是绝对可靠的，错误时有发生，挑战在于区分疏忽与故意无视后果。医疗保健专业人员对现行法律是否准备好将刑事责任归于刑事责任感到不安，同时未能认识到发生不合标准做法的高压环境。本文认为，严重过失过失杀人罪定义不当，未能针对社会应定罪的医生。在提倡更激进的方法——疏忽的滑动尺度之前，考虑了严重疏忽过失杀人的替代方案，包括苏格兰采用的有罪杀人罪和新西兰青睐的主要离境测试。使用民法和行政法中的现有测试，建议对严重过失进行更客观的测试，将有罪作为对医生定罪的强制性要求。人们争辩说，法律必须从医疗疏忽成为犯罪、结果偏见、行为偏见犯罪所要求的患者死亡的立场转变。造成严重损害的应受谴责的重大过失不应受到刑事制裁，没有根本原因。最近的量刑指南表明，该法律足够复杂，可以将应受谴责的行为与粗心大意的行为区分开来。现在是法律测试也承认所指控犯罪的所有情况的时候了。将有罪作为对医生定罪的强制性要求。人们争辩说，法律必须从医疗疏忽成为犯罪、结果偏见、行为偏见犯罪所要求的患者死亡的立场转变。造成严重损害的应受谴责的重大过失不应受到刑事制裁，没有根本原因。最近的量刑指南表明，该法律足够复杂，可以将应受谴责的行为与粗心大意的行为区分开来。现在是法律测试也承认所指控犯罪的所有情况的时候了。将有罪作为对医生定罪的强制性要求。人们争辩说，法律必须从医疗疏忽成为犯罪、结果偏见、行为偏见犯罪所要求的患者死亡的立场转变。造成严重损害的应受谴责的重大过失不应受到刑事制裁，没有根本原因。最近的量刑指南表明，该法律足够复杂，可以将应受谴责的行为与粗心大意的行为区分开来。现在是法律测试也承认所指控犯罪的所有情况的时候了。造成严重损害的应受谴责的重大过失不应受到刑事制裁，没有根本原因。最近的量刑指南表明，该法律足够复杂，可以将应受谴责的行为与粗心大意的行为区分开来。现在是法律测试也承认所指控犯罪的所有情况的时候了。造成严重损害的应受谴责的重大过失不应受到刑事制裁，没有根本原因。最近的量刑指南表明，该法律足够复杂，可以将应受谴责的行为与粗心大意的行为区分开来。现在是法律测试也承认所指控犯罪的所有情况的时候了。