Los denominados 'tratamientos médicos arbitrarios' ante el Derecho penal: de la STS de 26 de octubre de 1995 a la SAP de Salamanca de 7 de abril de 2014

Most of the legal scholarship in Spain considers that the informed consent of the patient does not play a significant role in deciding to charge a physician with an offence against the personal integrity, because these offences require an objective worsening of the health. Even though it is extremely rare to find a conviction based on this rationale, this has been the case in any isolated decisions though. In this article, the author analyzes two Court decision (one by the Supreme Court of 1995 and other from the Provincial Court of Salamanca of 2014), that sentence a physician and defends that the principle of autonomy leads to the adoption of a subjective concept of health. That means to consider the unconsented medical treatments as conducts chargeable with a criminal offense. This way, the authors seeks an approximation between the Spanish offences against the personal integrity and the offences of battery and assault, characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon Criminal Law. [English-language abstract as in translation for Spanish-language article.]