Medical-Legal Dictionary

Medical-Legal and Health Law Dictionary

Abortion: The expulsion of a fetus from the uterus before it is viable.
Active Euthanasia: The taking of active measures to cut short the life of a terminally ill patient.
Actuary: Professionals uniquely skilled in the application of mathematics to risk management, contingent events and opportunity.
Adult Guardianship: The body of law as related to the investigation into the ability of an adult to manage his or her person or affairs, and the resultant guardianship.
Akathisia: Psychomotor restlessness.
Alopecia: Hair loss.
Alternative Medicine: Holistic health care; medical care that is outside of mainstream medical practice and not benefiting from a solid base of research or regulatory control.
Alzheimer's: A degenerative disease of the brain of unknown origin resulting in destruction of brain tissue and deterioration in brain function.
Ambulatory: Something which is mobile or not cast in stone; which can be changed.
Anti-psychotic Drugs: Tranquilizing pharmaceutical products used to minimize or control psychotic episodes or the symptoms associated with schizophrenia.
Antisocial Personality Disorder: A pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others.
Automatism: An act done by a person who is not conscious of what he is doing.
Autopsy: The post-mortem dissection and examination of an individual to determine the cause of death.
Battering Cycle: A three-phase cycle of violent behavior within a spousal relationship.
Born Alive: A child born and independently breathing or with a heart beat.
Cadaver: A dead human body.
Cancer: An aggregation of outlaw cells with the propensity to migrate and grow in size and in the territory covered and the definite destruction of the body.
Cataplexy: A condition in which the patient loses muscle control and collapses.
Chronic Serious Health Condition: A continuing episodic health condition which requires periodic visits for treament.
Congenital: Existing at birth.
Copulation: Sexual intercourse.
Corpse: A dead human body.
Cremation: The reduction of the body of a deceased human to its essential elements by incineration.
Crumbling Skull Rule: A legal theory, companion to the thin skull rule, which limits a tort defendant’s exposure to a plaintiff’s injuries to the plaintiff’s condition at the time of the tort.
Dead Donor Rule: A custom of medical-legal ethics that vital organs should only be transplanted from dead patients.
Death: Irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions and of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem.
Delict: A civil law term which imposes liability on a person who causes injury to another, or for injury caused by a person or thing under his custody.
Delirium: A sudden onset of acute confusion and hyperactivity.
Delusion: A firm yet irrational belief and which may affect an individual's capacity to contract.
Dementia: A chronic impairment of cognitive and intellectual functioning including memory impairment, which interferes with the activities of daily living.
Dipsomania: An irresistible impulse to indulge in intoxicants; chronic alcoholism.
Disability Insurance: An insurance contract in which the insurer agrees to pay money or to other benefits in the event that the person insured becomes disabled.
DSM-IV: The American Psychiatric Association mental disorder manual and classification.
Eggshell Skull Doctrine: A tort-feasor or a wrongdoer takes his victim as he finds him.
En Ventre Sa Mere: French: A fetus recognized as a child then alive for the purposes of wills and estates.
Eugenic: A measure taken to avoid or prevent the birth of a defective child.
Euthanasia: The putting to death, by painless method, of a terminally-ill or severely debilitated person.
Exhumation: The removal of human remains from a grave or vault for the purpose of examination.
Expert Witness: A witness with a defined area of expertise and on that basis and strictly within that area, is allowed to give opinion evidence to the Court (or jury, as the case may be).
Folstein MMSE: Summary exam used to assess dementia.
Fool: A human being in form but destitute of reason from birth.
Funeral: Formal observances held for a deceased person, usually before burial or cremation.
Global Deterioration Scale: A psychiatric tool charting stages of dementia.
Habit: A regular response to a specific situation.
Heart Attack: Damage to the heart muscle by occlusion of blood supply.
Heart Attack Standard: A finding or allegation that conditions of employment are so unusual or extraordinary conditions as to have the potential to cause mental disorder or a heart attack.
Hippocratic Oath: An oath of professional conduct sworn by physicians at the commencement of their career.
Hired Gun: An expert with a bias or who adapts his or her expert evidence to the requirements of the party that calls him/her as a witness.
Hospital: A health care facility which offers medical treatment including, as may be necessary, board and lodging and necessary incidents such as nursing care or use of technical equipment.
Human Remains: The body of a deceased person, in whole or in parts, regardless of its stage of decomposition.
Idiot: A person incapable of managing his person or his affairs from birth.
Imbecile: An individual with a lack of normal mental ability but not complete or absolute.
Incapacitated: An individual who lacks the ability to meet essential requirements for physical health, safety, or self-care.
Incompetency: An individual who has a significant risk of personal harm based upon an inability to adequately provide for nutrition, health, housing, or physical safety.
Infarction: A sudden reduction or stoppage of blood flow.
Insanity: Disorder which impairs the human mind and prevents distinguishing between actions that are right or wrong.
Kleptomania: An impulse control disorder characterized by the inability to resist impulses to steal objects.
Life: Independent existence as an animate being.
Lunacy law: The law as it relates to the assessment and committal of persons incapable of managing themselves or their affairs.
Lunatic: An individual who, though once of sound mind, can no longer manage his person or his affairs.
Mania: An abnormally elevated mood state.
MCMI - Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory: A test to assess specific personality characteristics including emotional factors.
Medical Expert: A witness tendered to offer opinion evidence within the confines of his or her area of medical expertise.
Medical Malpractice: Negligence of a health care professional in the diagnosis, care, and treatment of a patient.
Mental Disorder: A psychiatric disorder; a clinically significant disease, illness or disability of the mind.
Mentally Ill: A person who is incapable of managing his person or his affairs.
Mentally Retarded: Subnormal general intellectual functioning which originates during the developmental period and is associated with impairment of learning and social adjustment or maturation.
MMPI - Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory: An objective personality test designed to detect a number of major patterns of personality and emotional disorder.
M'Naghten Rules: A defence to criminal law liability developed in England; if, at the time of the offence, the accused had a disease of the mind such that he was unable to know that his act was wrong.
Myocardial Infarction: Permanent damage caused to the middle layer, the heart muscle, usually by sudden obstruction of blood flow.
Myocardium: The cardiac muscle at the middle layer of the heart.
Narcolepsy: A condition in which a person has an overwhelming need to sleep and will fall asleep virtually at any time of day or any place
Natural Fool: A human being in form but destitute of reason from birth.
Necrophilia: A psychosexual disorder, sexual relations with a corpse.
Negligence: A breach of a duty to take care.
Nervous Shock: A recognizable psychiatric illness caused by the breach of duty.
Neuroleptic: Anti-psychotic, tranquilizing pharmaceutical products used in the treatment of some mental illnesses such as, but not limited to, schizophrenia.
Non Compos Mentis: Latin: Not of sound mind.
Pain Pump: A disposable, portable, non-electronic device that systematically infuses an anaesthetic through an implanted catheter.
Parasomnia: Sudden unexplained arousal from sleep, sometimes combined with sleep-walking or hand gestures or other bizarre activities.
Passive Euthanasia: Intentionally withholding a life-saving medical procedure so as to not artificially prevent death.
Pathologist: Medical doctors who practice pathology; determine through laboratory medicine the causes of tissue disease.
Pathology: Laboratory medicine; that branch of medicine that studies diseases, their causes and effects.
Personal Injury: Injury to the natural body of a person.
Personality Disorder: A group of disruptive personality traits which become evident by adolescence or early adulthood.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: A mental disorder that results from an extreme traumatic stress.
Pre-existing Condition: A common exclusion of disability insurance contracts for exacerbation of medical conditions known to have existed within a specified time-frame.
Proctologist: A medical doctor who studies and treats disorders of the rectum and anus.
Rectal Prolapse: A medical condition in which the lower end of the bowel (the rectum) falls or pops out of the anus.
Sadism: Delight in physical or mental cruelty.
Schizophrenia: A severe, chronic and generally disabling mental disorder that severely disrupts normal thoughts, speech and behavior.
Shock: A sudden and disturbing impression on the mind.
Stab Wound: A bodily injury caused by a knife or other sharp or pointed instrument.
STAXI, State Trait Anger Expression Inventory: A psychological test which measures the intensity of anger in an individual and the disposition to experience angry feelings.
Still-born Child: A child which which did not at any time after being completely expelled from its mother breathe or show any signs of life.
Strangle: To interrupt breathing by interference with the windpipe.
Superficial Wound: A scrape, bruise, discoloration, or swelling, of minimal severity.
Testamentary Capacity: The legal ability to sign a will.
Thin Skull Rule: An additional exposure in tort liability towards persons who are particularly vulnerable or more fragile than the norm, who may have inherent weaknesses or a pre-existing vulnerability or condition; the tort-feasor takes his victim as he finds them; he compensates for all damages he caused, even if damages are elevated compared to a norm because the plaintiff was thin skulled.
Tort: The body of the law which allows an injured person to obtain compensation from the person who caused the injury.
Toxicologist: An expert in the science of toxicology, the study of the adverse effects of chemical, physical or biological agents such as drugs or poisons.
Triage: To sort or choose, especially as a process used to determine the urgency or need for emergency care based on a preliminary assessment or observation.
Urology: Specialty in medicine that deals with the male and female urinary tracts and the male genitalia.
Uterine: Related to the uterus or, in estate law, siblings issue of a common mother.
Washerwoman Syndrome: Changes in the skin condition that result from being immersed in water.
Whiplash: Soft tissue (nerves and muscles) damage to the neck or lower brain area, often caused by a rear-end motor vehicle collision.
Wrongful Birth: A mother's claim in tort that she would not to have given birth to the child with serious genetic defects but for the defendant's negligence in testing or counselling.
Wrongful Life: A child's tort claim for bringing the child to birth where the person so doing knew or ought to have known that the child would be born into a life of painful and debilitating disease.
Wrongful Pregnancy: A tort claim alleging that the defendant's negligence has caused an unwanted pregnancy and birth.

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