REFORMULATION OF THE CONCEPT OF MEDICAL MALPRACTICE IN A PROGRESSIVE LEGAL PERSPECTIVE: FROM INDIVIDUAL FAULT TO CONTEXTUAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Abstrak

The increasing complexity of healthcare systems in Indonesia has intensified legal disputes concerning alleged medical malpractice, which are predominantly assessed within the paradigm of individual fault liability. This study aims to critically examine the conceptual construction of medical malpractice in Indonesian positive law, identify its underlying paradigmatic limitations, and propose a theoretical reformulation grounded in progressive legal thought. Employing a normative juridical method with statutory and conceptual approaches, this research analysis primary and secondary legal materials through prescriptive legal reasoning. The findings reveal that the prevailing malpractice doctrine is heavily influenced by legal positivism, which frames medical liability primarily as an issue of individual negligence and evaluates it through formalistic parameters such as duty of care, breach, causation, and damage. Such an approach inadequately captures the systemic and multidisciplinary nature of modern healthcare practice and may contribute to legal fragmentation, overcriminalization of medical professionals, and the emergence of defensive medicine. To address this gap, the study advances a conceptual shift from individual fault to contextual accountability, proposing a theoretical model termed the Progressive Medical Liability Framework. This framework integrates contextual, proportional, restorative, and integrative principles to reconceptualize medical liability within the broader institutional and systemic structure of healthcare delivery, thereby promoting a more adaptive and substantively just legal approach to medical disputes.