[PART I. 
GENERALLY]



 



Revision Note



 



  Part heading added by revisor.



 



§453-1  Practice of medicine defined. 
For the purposes of this chapter the practice of medicine by a physician or an
osteopathic physician includes the use of drugs and medicines, water,
electricity, hypnotism, osteopathic medicine, or any means or method, or any
agent, either tangible or intangible, for the treatment of disease in the human
subject; provided that when a duly licensed physician or osteopathic physician
pronounces a person affected with any disease hopeless and beyond recovery and
gives a written certificate to that effect to the person affected or the
person's attendant nothing herein shall forbid any person from giving or
furnishing any remedial agent or measure when so requested by or on behalf of
the affected person.



This section shall not amend or repeal the law
respecting the treatment of those affected with Hansen's disease.



For purposes of this chapter, "osteopathic
medicine" means the utilization of full methods of diagnosis and treatment
in physical and mental health and disease, including the prescribing and
administration of drugs and biologicals of all kinds, operative surgery,
obstetrics, radiological, and other electromagnetic emissions, and placing special
emphasis on the interrelation of the neuro-musculoskeletal system to all other
body systems, and the amelioration of disturbed structure-function
relationships by the clinical application of the osteopathic diagnosis and
therapeutic skills for the maintenance of health and treatment of disease. [L
1896, c 60, §2; am L 1909, c 133, §1; RL 1925, §1023; RL 1935, §1201; RL 1945,
§2502; am L 1949, c 53, §29 and c 63, §1; RL 1955, §64-1; am L 1965, c 218, §1;
HRS §453-1; am L 1969, c 152, §1; am L 1981, c 185, §1; am L 1983, c 124, §16;
gen ch 1985; am L 2008, c 5, §1]



 



Cross References



 



  Determination of death, see §327C-1.



 



Attorney General Opinions



 



  Medical acupuncture is not sufficiently distinct from
traditional acupuncture so as to fall outside the scope of the practice of
acupuncture.  Physicians licensed by board of medical examiners cannot practice
medical acupuncture absent licensure by board of acupuncture.  Att. Gen. Op.
03-5.



 



Law Journals and Reviews



 



  Should The Right To Die Be Protected?  Physician Assisted
Suicide And Its Potential Effect On Hawai‘i.  19 UH L. Rev. 783.



  Physician Assisted Suicide:  Expanding the Laboratory to the
State of Hawai‘i.  29 UH L. Rev. 269.



 



Case Notes



 



  "Practice" defined.  21 H. 465.



  Decision of private hospitals concerning granting of staff
privileges to licensed doctors is subject to judicial review if hospital has
received government funds.  53 H. 475, 497 P.2d 564.