Judicialization of Health and Dignity of the Human Person: Access to Experimental Treatments in Private Health Schemes

Abstract

Current research deals with the impacts of Human Rights on Health Rights and analyzes the contracts of private and enterprise health schemes and refusal of medical treatments when experimental treatments are prescribed. This behavior submits patients who require care to indignity conditions. The condition is relatively common in Brazil and several motives based on the economical and contractual order justify the negative answer to experimental treatments. The latter are bonded to advances in medical and biotechnological research which provoke debates on the violation of fundamental rights in the dignity of health treatment. Current research analyzes Brazilian juridical decisions on these novel conflicts, or rather, identifies the main issues that people with private health schemes face in the courts, taking into consideration private legislation, public policies and contemporary laws.