A Comparative Study of Physicians Civil Liability to Non-Patients in Iran and U.S.A.

The legitimacy of medical treatment depends on the patient's informed consent. Medical law, therefore, recognizes the "obligation of information" as one of physician duties. This duty is not limited to informing the patient. Rather, despite the principle of confidentiality in medical law, in many legal systems, it is accepted that the physician in order to protect non-patient must give necessary warnings to the patient or to the exposed person at risk from the patient. Otherwise the physician will be responsible for any damage to non-patient. Considering that this liability been raised for the first time in American law, and on the other hand, considering that Iranian law and jurisprudence have not addressed this issue; This article, based on descriptive-analytical method, comparatively studies the conditions of such liability in US and Iranian law, in order to clarify its various dimensions and to provide suggestions for Iranian legal system. The present article shows that US and Iranian law on the liability of physicians to non-patients have common principles and the American legal system, which is a leader in this field, can be used to regulate the conditions of this liability in Iran.