[Legal aspects: nonbinding recommendations or jurisdiction upon medicine?]

The freedom of therapy granted to doctors through the ages by the jurisdiction does not imply a preferred position of the doctor but lies in the interest of the patient: the doctor after thorough examination should carry out self-responsibly the therapy that is in the best interest of the patient if and as far as the patient agrees. Unfortunately, today the freedom of medical treatment is thoroughly and from multiple sides endangered. Danger derives on the one hand from the increasing influence of jurisdiction on medicine, and on the other hand, from the increasing specialization and the segregation of fields of expertise resulting therefore. Most dangerous is the multiple and subtle regulation on free medical practice of the profession by reforming the mandatory health insurance with quotas, positive lists (allowed prescriptions), fixed budgets, etc. That the doctors have substantially contribute to the erosion of freedom of therapy which also increases the risk of criminal and civil liability of the doctor by excessive support of the creation of guidelines in the recent past, is not generally acknowledged. The following should cast a little light on the missing conscience.