Abstract

ROMANS AND THEIR ‘MEDICAL LAW’ (CRIMINAL LAW ASPECTS)
Summary
Medicine began to be regulated by law already in the antiquity. Securing the public interest, the Roman legislator made attempts to protect his  citizens from certain blameworthy medical practices. There are sources available showing cases of doctors (medics), midwives and pharmacists being criminally prosecuted as a result of the fatal consequences of their medical and quasi-medical activities. The Roman law would impose criminal liability for the acts of administering poison instead of a medicament, bans on sterilization (castration), bans on abortion, criminal liability for causing the death or bodily injury of another man’s slave as a result of his improper treatment (imperitia). Doctors could be divided into private doctors, hired by private persons, and public ones, who were employed and paid by municipalities. Public doctors had to be highly qualified and enjoy an immaculate reputation. Nonetheless, the requirements demanded of doctors did not change the generally negative opinion on medics as held by the Roman society.