• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.159-193
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• 2015

Owing to causes such as population aging, increased use of various medical devices, long-term hospitalization of various patients with reduced immune function such as cancer, diabetes, and organ transplant patients, and the growing size of hospitals, hospital infections are continuing to increase. As seen in the MERS crisis of 2015, hospital infections have become a social and national problem. In order to prevent damage due to such hospital infections, it is necessary to first strictly implement measures to prevent hospital infections, while, on the other hand, providing proper relief of damage suffered due to hospital infections. However, the mainstream attitude of judicial precedents relating to hospital infection cases has been judged to in fact shift responsibility over damages due to hospital infections on the patient. In light of the philosophy of the damage compensation system, whose guiding principle if the fair and proper apportionment of damages, there is a need to seek means of drastically relaxing the burden of proof on the patient's side relative to conventional legal principles for relaxing the burden of proof, or the theory of de facto estimation. In relation to such need, the German civil code (Burgerliches Gesetzbuch), which defines contracts of medical treatment as typical contracts under the civil code, and has presumption of negligence provisions stipulating that, in cases such as hospital infections which were completely under the control of the medical care providers, if risks in general medical treatment have been realized which cause violations of the life, body, or health of patients, error on the part of the person providing medical care is presumed, was examined. Contracts of medical treatment are entered into very frequently and broadly in the everyday lives of the general public, with various disputes owing thereto arising. Therefore, it is necessary to, by defining contracts of medical treatment as typical contracts under the civil code, regulate the content of said contracts, as well as the proof of burden when disputes arise. If stipulations in the civil code are premature as of yet, an option may be to regulate through a special act, as is the case with France. In the case of hospital infection cases, it is thought that 'legal presumption of negligence' relating to 'negligence in the occurrence of hospital infections,' which will create a state close to equality of arms, will aid the resolution of the realistic issue of the de facto impossibility of remedying damages occurring due to negligence in the process of occurrence of hospital infections. Also, even if negligence is presumed by law, as the patient side is burdened with proving the causal relationships, such drastic confusion as would occur if the medical care provider side is found fully liable if a hospital infection occurs may be avoided. It is thought that, alongside such efforts, social insurance policy must be improved so as to cover the expenses of medical institutions having strictly implemented efforts to prevent hospital infections in the event that they have suffered damages due to a hospital infection accident, and that close future research and examination into this matter will be required.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.483-494
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• 2019

From the cosmopolitan superiority of the as the first world map completed in 1402 with surprisingly detailed images and contents on the Africa Continent it is reasonable to think that the Koreans in early fifteen century were already with highly up-to-date perspectives on the universe and world history and cultures. However, some 490 year later the first phytohydrographic plankton investigation in the neritic seas of Korea was performed by a Japanese company with sampling points covering from Tokyo Bay through Jeju neritic waters to Shanghai estuary, which was in turn preceded by the first oceanographic investigation other than the simple mapping Koreans seas by using two French sailboats. The first phytohydrographic plankton investigation in Korean seas were behind the world first oceanic plankton exploration, the German Plankton Expedition, by 25 years. Starting from the oceanographic investigation including phytohydrographic samplings in the whole Yellow Sea in 1915 the full-scale phytohydrographic plankton studies were tried in Korean seas which is well represented by the 1921 oceanographic investigation on the whole East Sea with 80 sampling stations. In 1932 two separate oceanographic investigations followed, one in the East Sea where 78 stations from Busan to southern Sakhalin Island were simultaneously visited by 50 research vessels for the physical, chemical, and biological oceanographic studies, and the other one in southern coast and western East Sea of Korea where ocean current observation as well as plankton sampling were made in 120 stations to understand the relationship between the ocean current and plankton distribution in the region. In 1933-1934 more intensified investigations on phytohydrography were carried out particularly in the East Sea as an integral part of the basic marine ecosystem studies for the Myeong-Tae (Alaska Pollock) resources estimation. Scientists' attitude for the marine investigation and research activities seemed to be almost unchanging even to the year 1943, which could be reflected by the fact that publication of the results from the investigations performed in 1945 were finally done in 1967 at Tokyo. Some 70 years later from the mid-twenty century we might be standing on the turning-point of "need to be prepared" for the new era of changing paradigm by reviewing, archiving, and analyzing the prior information big data from the previous ocean observation and biohydrographic investigations. At the same time each professional societies for the above mentioned sciences might trigger a continuous project to reorganize and update the records on related bibliography and its history every 30 years.