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8 Eur. J. Health L. 317 (2001)
Comparative Health Law and the Harmonization of Patients' Rights in Europe

handle is hein.journals/eurjhlb8 and id is 327 raw text is: European Journal of Health Law 8: 317-331, 2001. 317 © 2002 Kluwer Law International. Printed in the Netherlands. Comparative health law and the harmonization of patients' rights in Europe HERMAN NYS Professor Medical Law, Leuven, Belgium Professor of International Health Law, Maastricht Introduction This contribution contains a plea for more comparative health law research in Europe. On the one hand a common approach to the right to health care and to the individual patients' rights is becoming more and more apparent in Europe. The Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine of the Council of Europe may even be regarded as the common European standard for patient's rights. On the other hand the existence of such a common standard is not enough to conclude that the needs of patients to have their rights treated equally in Europe have been addressed. Commonly accepted principles as informed consent may in practice be implemented in very different ways. Up to now almost no systematic comparative research based on a case law approach rather than by means of exegesis of codal provisions has been undertaken in order to discover the convergences and divergences in the way such principles are implemented and to explain and interpret the importance of the differences. However, this knowledge is indispensable in order to make informed decisions at the European level about the harmonisation of patients' rights. 1. A common approach to the right to health care in Europe The rights of patients fall into two different categories: the so-called individual rights of the patient and the social rights of the patient. The most important social right of the patient is his right to health care. Within this right a distinction is made between the right to the protection and promotion of health and the right to have access to health services. The right of all European citizens to health protection can be derived from article 152.1 of the Treaty of

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