Emergency care criminalized in Turkey
Turkey has criminalized emergency care outside the hospital without government authorization and imposed stiff penalties.
“With this new law, a doctor will face to risk the criminal penalty of up to three years in jail, like those deliberately injuring a person, while taking care of someone requiring urgent medical attention outside the hospital,” Dr. Filiz Unal Incekara, Turkish Medical Association (TTB) board member, told Al-Monitor. “The land of the law now — in brief – criminalizes doctors’ Hippocratic oath, and the principles embraced in the Universal Human Rights Declaration that prioritize saving lives before anything else. That cannot be acceptable!”
This new law is part of an omnibus bill composed of 56 articles approved by parliament this month. This specific legislation compels doctors and health professionals to apply for official permission before they may administer emergency first aid. Without that authorization, the medical personnel could face one to three years in prison and fines of up to $1 million for breaking the law.
“The technical way in how the parliament makes law is absolutely undemocratic,” Riza Turmen, a former judge of the European Court of Human Rights and Izmir deputy of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), told Al-Monitor. “It is only a handful of people in the government and a few bureaucrats deemed close to the ruling party in related state institutions who decide on drafting a new law, and then that is passed to the parliament to be approved. In a democracy, however, when you make a law affecting the work of, let’s say, doctors, the Turkish Medical Association’s (TTB) opinion should have been sought. To begin with, scorning such democratic principles creates this unfortunate outcome.” Turmen added: “With the effort of CHP deputies during the debate of this new legislation at the General Assembly, the government was at least forced to make some revisions for the better.”
The legislation stated, “Those who provide health care without licenses and those unauthorized providing health care, are punishable with one to three years in jail and fined [heavy] legal fees.” The CHP objection led to including the following sentence at the beginning: “In extraordinary circumstances, those who are authorized to conduct their profession will be kept exempt from such restriction while providing first aid and until the authorized emergency medical aid providers arrive at the scene.”
