Two senior doctors have written to the National Medical Commission (NMC) urging the inclusion of “Medical Law and Ethics” as a separate subject in both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. They argued that the fast-changing healthcare environment and the rising number of medico-legal cases in India demand a structured approach to teaching law and ethics in medical training.
In their joint representation, Dr. B. Sadananda Naik, Senior Physician at Alva’s Health Centre, Moodabidri, and Dr. Adhish Basu, Senior Consultant Plastic Surgeon at Apollo Multispecialty Hospital, Kolkata, stressed that the current medical curriculum only touches upon scattered elements of ethics, communication, and criminal jurisprudence. However, it does not provide medical students with comprehensive knowledge of legal frameworks directly linked to their profession.
Citing data from the Indian Medical Association, the doctors noted that more than 70 percent of medical graduates feel unprepared to deal with the legal side of medical practice. They pointed out that rising litigations and compensation cases in consumer courts have left many practitioners resorting to “defensive medicine,” often increasing healthcare costs and weakening trust between doctors and patients. A structured subject, they said, would enable doctors to clearly understand their duties, rights, and patient-consent requirements.
The proposal also drew attention to global practices. Countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia already include medical law and ethics modules in their curricula. The World Medical Association’s Charter on Medical Professionalism, adopted in 2002, also underlines the importance of doctors being well-versed in the legal frameworks guiding medical practice.
Referring to important court rulings such as Jacob Mathew vs State of Punjab (2005) and Dr. Suresh Gupta vs Government of NCT of Delhi (2004), the letter highlighted that the Indian judiciary has repeatedly stressed the need for doctors to be legally aware and competent. The doctors said that teaching medical law would also be in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which promotes multidisciplinary and holistic learning.
According to them, the present system falls short in several areas. While medical ethics is briefly taught in the Foundation Course, legal concepts such as informed consent in India, principles of medical negligence, confidentiality, consumer protection laws, and medico-legal documentation are either missing or taught superficially. Studies, including one published in the Journal of Indian Medical Ethics in 2022, show that over 80 percent of MBBS students are unaware of their medico-legal responsibilities during emergencies.
They further pointed out that the NMC’s Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) framework already stresses producing graduates who are not only skilled clinicians but also effective communicators and leaders. Adding medical law as a structured subject, they said, would directly support these goals by improving legal competence and professional accountability.