MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE IN NIGERIA: COMPARING THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK ON MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE WITH THOSE OF SOME WESTERN JURISDICTIONS

Abstract

Medical jurisprudence is the branch of the law that regulates the application of law to medicine or conversely, it is the application of medical science to legal problems. In Nigeria there is a dearth in official reports, adjudication and prosecution of cases involving medical negligence; although instances of same occurs increasingly and unabated. As a result of this, there is an anecdotal and mistaken notion that there are not many instances or cases of medical negligence and that it is a herculean task to effectively redress medical negligence in Nigeria. In contrast, the situation in Western jurisdictions explicates a glaring difference as cases of medical negligence and medical malpractice are recorded and publicly adjudicated upon. This paper seeks to debunk the above mentioned notion, undertake a comparative analysis of medical negligence in Nigeria with selected jurisdictions, while addressing the reasons for the dearth of medical jurisprudence in the Nigerian society.