THE OKLAHOMA LAW JOURNAL VOL. 4. EDITED AND PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY D. H. FERNANDES, GUTHRIE, OKLAHOMA. CONTACT OF MEDICINE WITH LAW. By Hon. Chas. H. Woods, Ex-Assistant Attorney General of Oklahoma-A Medico-Legal address delivered, by invitation, before the Territorial Medical Association. The choice of wording for my subject is unfortunate if it does not convey the idea that by coming in contact with the law, in TOUCH WITH the law, one assumes a legal relation which is defined to be a manifestation of certain rights and liabilities between persons of whom correllated 'conditions of fact are predicable, and which is enforcable by the State at the instance of the one possessing the right. The word "contact" often conveys the idea of "opposition," but not necessarily so, and is not so here intended. I desire to speak briefly of some of the legal relations which arise by reason of certain acts and conduct of members of the medical profession. not all of these relations can I even touch upon in the limits of so short a paper; for it must be apparent that the relationship of law to medicine is as wide and embracing as are the activities possible in the medical field. Each visit that the physician makes, every prescription written or operation performed has not alone its medical aspect; even one's admission to the practice of this learned profession is, in most countries, regulated by law. No profession or occupation, no more than individuals, lives to itself but all are intermingled and interwoven, evolving from the time when the human race was composed of individual units, each independent and self-sufficient, and recognizing no inter relations, our civilization now demands that we all surrender some of our ancient liberties that each, the weak as well as the strong, may, in his own way, work out the problem of his individuality, the problem of his existence. The law defines the limits within which each individual is perfectly free to act, within which he can exercise his will and know no exterior restraint. Within these limits one's power to freely act is denominated by the law, a right; when these limits are overstepped by another, our rights are infringed and liability is created. From a legal right infringed causing a legal liability, a legal relation arises which the State will enforce. A physician has the right to exercise his profession; the patient has a right to be treated for disease in a reasonably careful and skillful manner. When by great carelessness in prescribing, the patient suffers injury, a legal relation immediately arises which will be taken cognizance of by the State, and a remedy offered. It is too late now to question the power of the State in this regard either practically, for we know it exists, or theoretically; individuals have voluntarily surrendered to to society certain of their powers; all are bound by the "social compact. As is usual in such cases the difficulty lies not so much in the statement of a general principle as in its application to particular facts. Law is notoriously not an exact science; law is administered by men and the |