{"title":"European Court of Justice.","authors":"Herman Nys","doi":"10.1163/15718093-12423572","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15718093-12423572","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43934,"journal":{"name":"EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH LAW","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144733756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Decision-Making Rights of Patients with Limited Capabilities in Healthcare and Mental Healthcare in Estonia, Latvia And Lithuania.","authors":"Solvita Olsena, Mari Amos, Inesa Fausch","doi":"10.1163/15718093-bja10152","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15718093-bja10152","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The paper analyses and compares the available legal frameworks that protect the autonomy and ensure decision-making rights in physical and mental healthcare for persons with mental disabilities in three Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The decision-making rights of persons with mental and psychosocial disabilities are examined in depth, with respect to the principles outlined in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The research shows that none of the three Baltic States provide an adequate framework to enable every person with mental health difficulties the ability to exercise autonomous decision-making in healthcare and receive support when needed. There is an urgent need to reform healthcare legislation in all Baltic countries to ensure a paradigm shift towards a human rights-based approach that limits substituted decision-making and enables supported decision-making in healthcare.</p>","PeriodicalId":43934,"journal":{"name":"EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH LAW","volume":" ","pages":"1-27"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144691862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Amendments to the Belgian Law on Euthanasia: Implications for Practitioners and Euthanasia Practice.","authors":"Madeleine Archer, Tom Goffin, Ben P White","doi":"10.1163/15718093-bja10151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15718093-bja10151","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Significant amendments to the Belgian Act on Euthanasia were passed in March 2024. The amendments altered the registration form which physicians submit for oversight after the patient has died, the penalties for non-compliance with the law, and the potential liability of practitioners who provide an independent advice in a euthanasia assessment. Two of these amendments addressed judgements delivered by the Belgian Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights. These amendments may have several positive impacts on euthanasia practice, including enhancing practitioners' compliance with the legal requirements and improving legal certainty. But they may also have negative impacts on practice, including by decreasing practitioners' willingness to provide euthanasia. Both the intended and possible unintended effects of reforms to Belgium's euthanasia law should be considered before and after their enactment. This is particularly important when these reforms change provisions which were seen as important when the original law was passed.</p>","PeriodicalId":43934,"journal":{"name":"EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH LAW","volume":" ","pages":"1-24"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144691861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Health and Health-Related Connected Objects: Regulatory Intersections, Grey Zones and Blind Spots.","authors":"Ana Nordberg, Déborah Eskenazy, Petra Holmberg","doi":"10.1163/15718093-bja10149","DOIUrl":"10.1163/15718093-bja10149","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The present paper explores legal issues concerning connected objects used for health or health-related purposes and their corresponding usage of health and health-related data. It focuses on a patient/healthcare-user-centred perspective and researches the EU legal framework for health data and health-related data. Arguing that the legal framework, as recently complemented with the European Health Data Space (EHDS) Act, is plagued by complex intersections, between this recently enacted legislation and various other legal instruments, e.g. Medical Device Regulation (MDR), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Data Act, Data Governance Act, Artificial Intelligence Act, etc. Furthermore, the legal framework applicable to health and health-related connected objects also contains several grey zones (i.e. areas of legal uncertainty concerning interpretation and applicability of existing norms), and unintended blind spots (i.e. areas potentially left untouched by the existing frameworks). The paper focuses on data quality, acceptability of connected objects, availability and accessibility of data, as well as the overarching topic of privacy and data protection. Concluding that, examined in conjunction, existing regulatory safeguards and certification mechanisms do not offer sufficient protection and simultaneously result in an excessively complex, cumbersome and opaque regulatory framework that has underestimated the specific needs of users in the health and health-related sectors.</p>","PeriodicalId":43934,"journal":{"name":"EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH LAW","volume":" ","pages":"308-333"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144337140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Planting Rights and Feeding Freedom: Navigating the Right to a Vegan Diet in Hospitals and Prisons.","authors":"Alice Bryk Silveira, Melanie Levy","doi":"10.1163/15718093-bja10150","DOIUrl":"10.1163/15718093-bja10150","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The legal recognition of veganism highlights the evolving landscape of dietary choices and their status under human rights law. This paper examines the legal status of vegan diets under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), focusing on public institutions such as prisons and hospitals. By analyzing the first relevant cases before the European Court of Human Rights, it explores the protection of vegan diets under Articles 9 (freedom of thought, conscience, and religion) and 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the ECHR. The paper also considers whether access to a vegan diet relates to identity, autonomy, and health through Article 8 (respect for private life) and discusses the connection between veganism, environmental sustainability, and the emerging right to a healthy environment. It offers a critical analysis of States' legal obligations regarding the provision of vegan diets in public settings.</p>","PeriodicalId":43934,"journal":{"name":"EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH LAW","volume":" ","pages":"335-355"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144337141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Farrah Raza, Jonathan Herring, James Neuberger, Isabel Quiroga, Cornelius Engelmann, Ernest Ryder, Thomas Berg
{"title":"Strong or Weak Consent in Medical Law? Identifying the Values Protected in Transplantation Medicine in Europe.","authors":"Farrah Raza, Jonathan Herring, James Neuberger, Isabel Quiroga, Cornelius Engelmann, Ernest Ryder, Thomas Berg","doi":"10.1163/15718093-bja10148","DOIUrl":"10.1163/15718093-bja10148","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Across European legal systems, there is a consensus on the importance of consent in medical ethics as recently emphasised by the European Court of Human Rights in Pindo Mulla v Spain. Yet, consent in medical law poses several challenges in practice which includes the need to reduce mistakes in the consent process. We argue that consent is scalar and includes 'strong' consent (where a patient has maximum capacity to express a fully informed, voluntary decision) to weak consent (where a patient has said 'yes' but with limited understanding or liberty. We propose a 'model of disaggregating consent' which highlights the range of values that consent protects albeit to varying degrees in different cases. We apply our model to the example of organ donation and organ transplantation to illuminate how our model paves the way for improving decision-making in the consent process by factoring in the pluralistic values at play.</p>","PeriodicalId":43934,"journal":{"name":"EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH LAW","volume":" ","pages":"281-307"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144337142","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"European Court of Justice.","authors":"Herman Nys","doi":"10.1163/15718093-12423570","DOIUrl":"10.1163/15718093-12423570","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43934,"journal":{"name":"EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH LAW","volume":" ","pages":"357-362"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144337139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Current Status, Challenges and Future of Medical and Health Data Sharing in China: Lessons from the European Health Data Space.","authors":"Yulu Jin, Jiayu Hu","doi":"10.1163/15718093-bja10147","DOIUrl":"10.1163/15718093-bja10147","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The rapid development of information technology has made the sharing and utilization of medical and health data a key factor in promoting medical innovation and improving public health levels. However, China still faces many challenges in the field of medical and health data sharing, including an imperfect legislative system, unclear data ownership, lack of incentive mechanisms, and lagging construction of data sharing platforms. This paper analyzes the current status of medical and health data sharing in China and the existing problems, pointing out that the decentralization and low level of legislation restrict the rational flow and effective utilization of health data. Through comparative analysis with the European Health Data Space, the deficiencies in China's data sharing are revealed, and drawing on the experience of the EU, corresponding improvement paths are proposed. This paper suggests that measures such as establishing a medical data ownership and authorization mechanism, constructing a diversified benefit distribution mechanism, and building a secure and trustworthy dual-track sharing platform should be taken to promote the efficient utilization and circulation of medical and health data in China. These measures will facilitate the implementation of medical informatization and the medical data sharing strategy.</p>","PeriodicalId":43934,"journal":{"name":"EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH LAW","volume":" ","pages":"239-280"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144337143","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Human Rights and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare-Related Settings: A Grammar of Human Rights Approach.","authors":"Helga Molbæk-Steensig, Martin Scheinin","doi":"10.1163/15718093-bja10146","DOIUrl":"10.1163/15718093-bja10146","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article examines the expanding role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare and associated human rights concerns, including whether new EU legislation takes all relevant human rights concerns into account. AI presents promising ways to fulfil the right to health through improving diagnostics, treatments, and resource allocation, but its use also comes with risks concerning privacy, bias, discrimination, and human dignity. Existing literature often relies on the rather vague FATE (Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, Ethics) principles, but recent calls have been made for a human-rights-based approach more broadly to ensure the legality and ethics of AI applications. This article responds to that call by proposing a structured methodology for reconciling rights, considering both the different structures of civil and political versus economic, social and cultural human rights, the negative and positive obligations of the state, and the interplay with different AI design choices.</p>","PeriodicalId":43934,"journal":{"name":"EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH LAW","volume":" ","pages":"139-164"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144081251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"European Court of Human Rights.","authors":"Joseph Dute, Tom Goffin","doi":"10.1163/15718093-bja10145","DOIUrl":"10.1163/15718093-bja10145","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43934,"journal":{"name":"EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH LAW","volume":" ","pages":"223-228"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144043497","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}