CRIMINAL LIABILITY FOR GRAVE HARM TO HEALTH UNDER THE DRAFT OF CRIMINAL CODE OF UKRAINE

Abstract

The article considers the issues of establishing criminal liability for serious harm to health in the draft of Criminal Code of Ukraine, developed by the working group on the development of criminal law of the Commission on Legal Reform, which is an advisory and consultative body under the President of Ukraine. Book Four “Criminal Offenses against Human Beings” of the draft of Criminal Code of Ukraine includes, in particular, sections 4.1. “Crimes against human life” and 4.2. “Criminal Offenses against human health”, which contain norms establishing liability for causing human death and harm to human health of varying severity. The draft of Criminal Code of Ukraine proposes a classification of serious harm to human health that is somewhat different from the current classification of serious bodily harm, in particular, it adds such types as sterilization, complete loss of professional capacity, infection with a particularly dangerous infectious disease or infection with its pathogen, and irreparable disfigurement of the body. It is considered appropriate to establish in the relevant criminal law such a type of grave harm to health as the loss of a person’s reproductive function instead of genital mutilation and sterilization. In addition, it is considered unnecessary to distinguish between irreparable disfigurement of the face and other parts of the human body when determining the types of grave harm to health, since the face is a part of the human body. The commission of serious harm to health significantly increases the degree of public danger of this act, as it contributes to the development of professional violent crime and is one of its determinants, and therefore it seems appropriate to single out the feature of “committing to order” as one that increases the severity of the criminal offense under investigation.