Ethical and Legal Issues in Medical Tourism

Abstract

In these days, millions of people, especially from developed countries, are travelling to other countries for medical treatment. This development is called ‘medical tourism’. Medical tourism is one of the lucrative industries that has expanded rapidly worldwide, including Malaysia. The development is due to factors such as seeking quality medical treatment at lower costs.  However, there are certain ethical and legal issues arising from the development of the industry.  These issues should be addressed because it may affect the development of medical tourism in the future.  Lack of legal recourse and lack of regulation are some examples of legal issues that are discussed in this paper.  The ethical issues include the quality of care for treatment provided by medical providers, lack of follow-up care for patients at their home countries, access to care for the local people at destination countries and the issue that arises from the treatment that is illegal in patients’ home countries.   The objective of this article is to examine these ethical and legal issues in order to assist the growth of the industry and the country’s economy in the future. This research is based on analysis of primary and secondary sources such as legislation, textbooks, and journal articles that relates to the medical tourism and issues arising from its development. The article concludes that these ethical and legal issues can be resolved by having a uniform medical tourism regulation.