Malasanità and/or malpractice: a bioethical view

BACKGROUND Inspired by a series of newspaper articles, the authors consider the different semantic meaning of the Italian word malasanità and the English word malpractice. They feel that many cases of malasanità are rarely due to technical problems, which are rarely proven in a trial, but mainly to the ethical problems. They claim that ethics lead human behaviour particularly in healthcare, as can be seen in the loving care of the patients. Patients take free medical service as granted and appreciate the personal behaviour and the empathy of the doctors. Today the practice of informed consent is the failure of the relationship between physician and patient. Medicine should be humanized not through technical improvements, but through ethics.
AIM OF THE PAPER By the analysis of single cases the healthcare operator's behaviour and actions are studied, as well as the authentic humanity of the professionals called to help other people.
CONCLUSIONS When dealing with a single case, the media use the word malasanità globally, as if the whole healthcare system was responsible. The authors, criticizing both the terminology and the interpretation, prefer to proceed to the analysis of the single case, without ignoring however the many lacks and faults that occurred during the hospitalization.