Human rights: implications for patients and staff

Originating from wider declarations of fundamental human rights, individual human rights in the field of health care, also called patients' rights, have been elaborated, developed and implemented by most international organisations, including the European Union and the World Health Organisation. The Council of Europe is however, particularly prominent in its work in the field of human rights, having drawn up a number of vital international treaties, among them and most importantly the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, which strengthens internationally the legal position of the patient and the research subject in setting a minimum level of protection in respect of individual human rights and health and is binding upon the member states that have ratified it. Nonetheless, it needs to be examined to see if the European Union would be a better alternative to regulate these patients' rights.