THE STANDARD OF LEGAL LIABILITY FOR MALPRACTICE IN USING TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

This research aims to clarify standard of legal liability for traditional medicine practitioners in case of malpractice. Traditional Medicine is the sum total of knowledge, skill, and practices based on theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether applicable or not, used in maintenance of health as well as in prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness . Determining standard of legal liability for traditional practitioners guarantees consumer protection and provides judges with a stable legal system to hold accountable for those who violate standards of care and practice. This paper makes an original contribution on existing literature because there is no a stable standard to judge in malpractice cases of traditional medicine whether in same or different jurisdiction . Accordingly, this research displays points of view for different legal and jurisdictional applications such as (United States of America, Australia, United Kingdom) in determining standard of this liability whether apply standards of modern medicine to traditional practitioners or adopt a new appropriate standard. This study adopts two basic judicial standards in determining that liability, namely, ordinary standard of care and professional efficiency standard. So, to examine this issue, this study clarifies how apply these two standard to malpractice lawsuits of traditional medicine. The study concludes that no single standard of liability can apply to all traditional medicine practices and that standard of liability must vary depending on nature of traditional practice and how it is exercised .