The notion of grievous bodily harm and the legal obligation to notify law enforcement authorities

Anna Smędra; Rafał Kubiak; Jarosław Berent

doi:10.5114/ait.2020.101511

eISSN: 1731-2531
ISSN: 1642-5758

Anaesthesiology Intensive Therapy

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abstract:

Review article

The notion of grievous bodily harm and the legal obligation to notify law enforcement authorities

Anna Smędra

¹

,

Rafał Kubiak

²

,

Jarosław Berent

¹

Chair and Department of Forensic Medicine, Medical University of Łódz, Poland
Chair of Criminal Law, Faculty of Law and Administration, Medical University of Łódz, Poland

Anaesthesiol Intensive Ther 2020; 52, 5: 418–424

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5114/ait.2020.101511

Online publish date: 2020/12/08

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The obligation of physicians and other health professionals under Art. 240 § 1 of the Criminal Code instructs them to notify the law enforcement authority responsible for prosecuting crimes (in particular the Police or public prosecutor’s office) when prohibited acts are committed, attempted, or prepared. The list of such acts is enumerative, indicating the numbers of the relevant articles and paragraphs. On 13th July 2017 Art. 156 of the Criminal Code extended the list, adding grievous bodily harm as a prohibited act. Accordingly, this act introduced the legal obligation of denunciation, which outweighs medical privacy in such situations. As it can be difficult for a clinician to identify which injuries meet the criteria of grievous bodily harm, the authors of the paper have described in detail all of its forms with specific examples, since failure to comply with that obligation is punishable by up to three years of deprivation of liberty.

keywords:

The notion of grievous bodily harm and the legal obligation to notify law enforcement authorities

Anna Smędra 1 , Rafał Kubiak 2 , Jarosław Berent 1

grievous bodily harm, denunciate, medical privacy

Anna Smędra

¹

,

Rafał Kubiak

²

,

Jarosław Berent

¹