The ruling coalition plans in September a second approach to "lex charlatan" after Karol Nawrocki's decision of 20 August to mention the bill to the Constitutional Tribunal. According to the WP, he wants to combine the broader powers of the RPP with the criminal path, but throw out 2 records of the presidential project. The stakes are to defend the sick without trampling on freedom of speech and business activity.
A dispute after the President's decision
Virtual Poland reports that upon the return of the Sejm from the holiday, the coalition will search a second approach to the law called "lex charlatan". The first version did not enter into force, as on August 20, president Karol Nawrocki addressed the amendment of the Patient Rights Act and the Patient Rights Ombudsman to the Constitutional Court in preventive control. At the same time, the palace showed its own plan of changes in the penal code.
This is not a dispute over whether the sick request to be protected from frauds. You have to. He who preys on the patient's fear, urges him to abandon treatment, and sells wonderful prescriptions, hits life, family, and simple honesty. The State has a work to respond hard. But the state cannot build a mechanics that, under the slogan of combating fraud, will cover freedom of speech, petty entrepreneurship and average wellness debate.
The President's decision fits into a broader image of his presidency. DN has already written that Karol Nawrocki wants to change the model of presidency, and the lex charlatan case shows how this model looks in practice: The Palace not only blocks the bill, but tries to force its own definition of the border between patient protection and citizen freedom.
Lex charlatan and 2 points in dispute
According to the findings of the ND, the coalition is considering a two-track solution: The Ombudsman for Patient Rights would have a broader competence, and a criminal way would besides appear, which the Palace wants. The problem is 2 records of the presidential project. The first concerns the request to show who was specifically encouraged not to take or discontinue treatment. The second is paragraph 7, which excludes the work for self-presenting information, opinions, assessments or beliefs if there is no deliberate misleading or unauthorised pressure.
The coalition sees this as a gateway for pseudomedical recordings, entries and online gurus. The palace sees safety against punishing people for opinions, opinions or activities that do no harm to the patient. There's a real knot here. Left and KO would be happy to hand over most of the cases to the administration and experts at the MPC. The president is pulling the case towards court and the D.A.'s office. In a average country, that should not be surprising. punishment and prohibition interfering with freedom must be controlled by court, not just by authoritative decision.
Government bill, conducted in the Sejm as printing No 2598, provided inter alia for financial penalties for violations of collective patient rights and a fresh procedure for pseudomedical practices. The HR points out that the penalties were to scope up to PLN 1 million and for not cooperating with the RPP to PLN 100 thousand. specified tools may be needed against cynical frauds, but ill-written regulations rapidly become a stick besides to those who do not fit officials into 1 model of thinking.
Presidential Response: Criminal Code
President's office published presidential draft amendmentswhich adds Article 160a to the Criminal Code. The task provides for up to 3 years in prison for urging, utilizing violence, threats, deception, abuse of trust or usage of helplessness, to discontinue treatment or diagnosis if it threatens life or serious harm to health. To minors, severely ill, oncologically sick and pregnant women, the punishment increases to 5 years. erstwhile the consequence is severe wellness damage, the task talks about a punishment from 1 to 10 years, and erstwhile the patient dies from 2 to 15 years.
This is simply a plan closer to the rule of proportionality. It strikes where manipulation, harm and circumstantial danger arise. It does not give you the right to prosecute all herbalist, nutritionist or individual talking about their wellness experiences. The Ombudsman would be able to act in criminal matters concerning a fresh offence. A tough tool remains, but it is transferred where criminal work should be: to the judiciary.
There is no place for liberal hysteria that Nawrocki "defences charlatans". specified a charge is politically convenient, but besides simple. The presidential task foresees very advanced penalties for people who will origin serious harm or death by their actions. The dispute concerns not intentions, but borders of the state's power. The right hand should realize this difference better than anyone.
Protection of patients without a welfare state in the police version
Poland needs a law that distinguishes between a fraud and an honest entrepreneur and a doctor from an online hochsztapler. It besides needs a fast consequence to practices that destruct the lives of families: false oncological therapies, promises of miraculous cures, forcing further payments on grieving loved ones. household illness is 1 of the moments where a man is most vulnerable. Then the state will be on the weaker side.
But a national state cannot be blind. If the administration is given besides much power to measure wellness statements and practices, a akin mechanics may be utilized in another cases in a fewer years. present against frauds, next day against uncomfortable doctors, the day after next day against parents asking about school, vaccinations, treatment standards or ideological projects in wellness care. Power always likes erstwhile gained competence.
Therefore, if a compromise is to be created, it must be precise. Punish manipulation, deception and exploitation of the disease. defend the patient. Do not produce an authoritative muzzle for debate. safety at the most hard minute of life is at stake for Polish families, but besides freedom from the state, which besides easy expands its control.
Source: WP News, Office of the president of Poland, presidential project, seismic printing No 2598.
Source: WP News
