Healthcare professionals’ exclusion of liability for counteracting the pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 virus

Abstract

The article aims to point out the incessantly changing circumstances caused by the global pandemic. The new reality requires adaptation as well as changes in the habits of the society. The pandemic also impacts legal systems, particularly the criminal law. Due to this fact, fundamental questions arise, in particular, how legislation might secure the overstretched health service against presumptive criminal liability. The paper discusses the most debatable aspects that healthcare professionals might face, notably the refusal of health benefit when the doctor is not provided with personal protective equipment or conflict of the interest during medical treatment. Furthermore, the article presents the newly implemented institution – the good Samaritan clause, which exempts from criminal liability health professionals defined in the act, under special circumstances for indicated criminal offenses. The issues outlined hereinabove are based on the mandatory legal provisions, the views of the doctrine and jurisprudence as well as the stance of medical services.