Medicine and law
-
Having access to high-quality healthcare is a priority issue for European citizens and is recognised by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. The right to healthcare also encompasses situations where patients travel from one EU Member State to another and receive treatment there. This paper will explore the contradictory relation between the competence of EU Member States to regulate their health systems on their own, on the one hand, and free movement of services in the European Union, on the other hand. It will discuss the consequences of the decisions of the European Court of Justice in this field and the provisions of the Proposal for a Directive on Patients' Rights in Cross-Border Healthcare, especially in the light of opening up of EU Member States' healthcare markets, the need to control national healthcare expenditures and to protect the welfare state and the population of the host state.
-
Nowadays, health care institutions develop policies on how to deal with medical decisions concerning the patients' end-of-life stage (hereafter: "end-of-life decision policies" or "ELD-policies"). This evolution is not only noticeable in hospitals, but also in nursing homes, residential facilities for the disabled and home care services. However, these policies raise several legal issues. ⋯ Due to many differences in form and content, their legal value is difficult to define. Nevertheless, institutional ELD-policies are only enforceable on physicians after incorporation into a binding agreement and without violation of their (deontological and/or legal) right to professional autonomy. Patients (or their legal representatives) can never obligate physicians or health care institutions to comply with institutional ELD-policies, unless enforceable patients' rights are violated.