[dropcap type=”1″]N[/dropcap]igerian medical lawyer, Laolu Osanyin, has been appointed as the first African Member of the Board of Governors of the World Association for Medical Law (WAML).
Osanyin was decorated at the 21st Annual World Congress of the Association which took place at Coimbra, Portugal, recently.
The WAML is the international regulatory association of scholars, researchers and practitioners in the areas of medical and health laws.
The aim of the WAML is to promote the study of the consequences in jurisprudence, legislation and ethics of developments in medicine, health care and related sciences with membership from more than 100 countries. The Association also serves as the Medicolegal Advisory Council to the WHO and International Criminal Court.
At the recently concluded World Congress on Medical Law, Osanyin presented a paper titled: ‘The Ebola Patient Migration: The Nigerian Medicolegal Perspective.’
The paper highlighted the behind the scene diplomatic, public health and medicolegal issues surrounding the arrival of the Ebola patient, Mr. Patrick Sawyer into Nigeria culminating in the heroic exploits of the Nigerian physicians lead by late Dr. Amayo Adedevo in preventing the spread of the disease by ultimately sacrificing their own lives to save millions of lives from contacting the deadly virus.
As the first African member of the Board of Governors, Osanyin is expected to drive the growth of medical law in Africa by encouraging and facilitating discussions, protocols and legislations on rights and duties of the medical profession in the field of medical ethics, the advancement of health related technology and also issues of malpractice and medical negligence claims.