Case Summary

Court & Date:
Seoul Administrative Court, Division 6 (Presiding Judge: Na Jin-i), Decision on August 29, 2025

Case No.:
2024GuHap87898

Parties:
Plaintiff – Dentist A
Defendant – Minister of Health and Welfare

Issue:
Whether a dentist who personally ingested prescription-only medicine (for hair treatment) committed an unlicensed medical act under Article 27(1) of the Medical Service Act.

Facts:

Between February and April 2021, Dentist A ordered and consumed a soft-gel hair growth drug classified as a prescription-only medicine.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare imposed a 1-month-15-day suspension of his dental license, claiming he performed a medical act beyond his licensed scope (self-administration of a prescription drug without another doctor’s intervention).

A filed suit seeking to revoke the disciplinary measure, arguing self-medication is a personal act, not a “medical act” affecting others.


Court’s Ruling:

Suspension revoked (plaintiff wins).

The purpose of banning unlicensed medical acts is to protect others’ health and public hygiene, not to regulate a person’s self-treatment.

Dentist A’s conduct involved no third party and posed no public health risk.

Self-treatment falls within one’s personal autonomy and right to self-determination.

No provision of law explicitly classifies self-consumption of a drug as grounds for license suspension.

There was no evidence that A prescribed or administered the medicine to anyone else.


Legal Principle Affirmed:

> A medical professional’s act of self-medication, even using prescription-only drugs, does not constitute an unlicensed medical act, provided it concerns only their own body and does not endanger others or public health.

Article: https://www.lawtimes.co.kr/Case-curation/212508