Medicine and law
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Many initiatives have been taken to advocate, develop and emphasize patients' rights. The existence of legislation, case law or charters in the area of patients' rights does not guarantee that these rights are or will be successfully implemented in everyday practice. The implementation of patients' rights requires specific actions and expertise. ⋯ This development shows that legal interventions, such as legislation, will always have to be embedded in and/or supplemented by non-legal policy measures. This calls for a broad and well-considered implementation policy, including items at various levels (legislation, patient and patient organizations, health providers and health institutions, contextual conditions). Such a strategy calls for a multidisciplinary approach, involving input from the areas of law, ethics, medicine, the sciences etc.
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Israel enacted the Patient Rights Law in 1996. The Law embodies a movement from paternalism to autonomy in doctor-patient relations. The following year, law students at the Israeli Centre for Academic Studies participated in a clinical seminar designed to measure internalisation ofthe Law, through personal interviews with hospitalized patients. ⋯ Students received training in listening and advocacy skills. The approach is conciliatory rather than adversarial. The thesis is that respect for patient rights is an efficient tool for quality control, risk management, conflict resolution and prevention of litigation.
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Comparative Study
Dutch perspectives on the British Medical Association's critique of euthanasia in the Netherlands.
During the summer of 1999, extensive interviews with some of the leading authorities on the euthanasia policy were conducted in the Netherlands. They were asked: The British Medical Association, in its memorandum before the House of Lords, held that in regard to Holland, "all seem to agree that the so-called rules of careful conduct (official guidelines for euthanasia) are disregarded in some cases. ⋯ What do you think? Most of the interviewees conceded that this assertion is, indeed, correct. Two interviewees didn't pay much notice to the issue and three others said that the British critique is both true and untrue.
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Ethical and legal debates over ending life are inescapably emotive, controversial and complex. It is, however, increasingly urgent to resolve the debate over the legalization or continued prohibition of physician assisted suicide for a number of reasons, not least of which is the changing public and professional opinion and the growing concern over what may be actually but quietly and surreptitiously occurring in medical practice. The paper assesses the arguments for and against the legalization of this special case of euthanasia and concludes that with appropriate and well-defined criteria, guidelines, review and reporting requirements, the legalization of physician assisted suicide is not only ethical defensible but practical.
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The issue of children's rights has become very prominent over the past few decades during which attempts were being made to formulate an international agreement about the person status of children world-wide. These attempts have brought together and formalised a trend that has evolved over at least 400 years to broaden and develop society's understanding and acceptance of children as unique, necessary valuable societal assets. ⋯ Definitions and descriptions of various types of children's rights are given as well as the arguments posed for and against. Finally the various proposals and motivations for the inclusion of certain types of children's rights as they presently occur in the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are noted and discussed.