Tratamiento juridicio penal de las lesiones personales y el homicidio culposo en la practica de la medicina estetica en Colombia: analisis jurisprudencial sentencias relevantes 2023-2024

Abstract

Despite the fact that aesthetic medicine in the country is not exempt from punishable conducts such as culpable homicide, derived from malpractice in medicine, which violate fundamental rights such as life, health, personal integrity, and human dignity; it has consolidated itself in the Colombian health system as one of the main destinations for medical tourism worldwide, ranking ninth in this field and being the third country in Latin America in providing aesthetic medicine. The cases documented between 2023 and 2024 show deficiencies in professional competence, falsification of degrees, and absence of effective control mechanisms. Actions with which the duty of care and the lex artis are breached in the performance of aesthetic procedures, as injuries are caused that lead to the death of patients. From such situation arises the general objective of the present research, namely: to characterize at least three punishable acts in aesthetic medicine, occurred in the last five years, and to validate and interpret, based on the jurisprudence issued between 2023 and 2024, the punishable acts and the criminal justice processes carried out. To achieve the proposed objective, the methodology of exploration and documentary comparison of judged facts is used, description and correlation of the facts as they appear in criminal proceedings, critical reflection of the constitutional and jurisprudential frameworks included in the hermeneutical framework, and identification of normative gaps and possibly intentional procedural failures, in relation to the adoption of mechanisms that guarantee the protection and care of life, dignity, and the fundamental rights of patients in aesthetic medicine.