Legal issues

Receiving medical care abroad may subject medical tourists to unfamiliar legal issues.[30] The
limited nature of litigation in various countries is one reason for the lower cost of care overseas.
While some countries currently presenting themselves as attractive medical tourism destinations
provide some form of legal remedies for medical malpractice, these legal avenues may be
unappealing to the medical tourist. Should problems arise, patients might not be covered by
adequate personal insurance or might be unable to seek compensation via malpractice lawsuits.
Hospitals and/or doctors in some countries may be unable to pay the financial damages awarded
by a court to a patient who has sued them, owing to the hospital and/or the doctor not possessing
appropriate insurance cover and/or medical indemnity.[31]

[edit] Ethical issues

There can be major ethical issues around medical tourism.[30] For example, the illegal purchase of
organs and tissues for transplantation has been alleged in countries such as India[32][33] and
China[34] prior to 2007. The Declaration of Istanbul distinguishes between ethically problematic
"transplant tourism" and "travel for transplantation".[35]

Medical tourism may raise broader ethical issues for the countries in which it is promoted. For
example in India, some argue that a "policy of 'medical tourism for the classes and health
missions for the masses' will lead to a deepening of the inequities" already embedded in the
health care system.[36] In Thailand, in 2008 it was stated that, "Doctors in Thailand have become
so busy with foreigners that Thai patients are having trouble getting care".[37] Medical tourism
centred on new technologies, such as stem cell treatments, is often criticized on grounds of fraud,
blatant lack of scientific rationale and patient safety. However, when pioneering advanced
technologies, such as providing 'unproven' therapies to patients outside of regular clinical trials,
it is often challenging to differentiate between acceptable medical innovation and unacceptable
patient exploitation.[38][39]