Lawsuit Triggers Debate over Medical Mistakes

(Beijing) – Beatings and even killings of doctors by angry patients have been reported in recent years, and now doctors have been targeted in a debate over whether they and their hospitals should face criminal charges for medical mishaps.

Triggering the debate was a lawsuit filed by the husband of Ma Li, a comatose woman who was disconnected from life support and died in 2011 at Peking University People's Hospital in Beijing. The lawsuit, the first of its kind in the capital and based on legal arguments rarely heard anywhere in China, claims Ma's doctor should be held criminally liable for botched treatment before the death.