Riassunto analitico
In this work we want to describe the situation of the patient’s right to refuse medical treatment. We will start with the philosophical point of view about the availability or unavailability of the good of life, thinking about which philosophical current adopts this order of considerations that represent the basis of the regulation in force. After this, drawing on European Charters and Declarations on human rights and Bioethics, we will try to make an overview and give the reader an idea of how supernational is the discussion about the said argument and how important is a common direction of the international society for each State law. Then we will talk about the Italian situation, analysing the law and jurisprudence of some very discussed recent cases. The Italian position will be always analysed also in comparison with other state resolutions. Chapter 2 discusses about Jehovah Witnesses, about their blood refusal reasons anchored on the Bible and about some of the criticism they receive. After this, the focus will move to the adult and conscious patient who affirms his/her right to refuse some particular treatments, even life-saving ones, and to the use of the refusal card, typical of Jehovah Witnesses. We will do this always thinking about medical duty and patient’s rights of dignity, even in final phases of the life and with a particular attention to penal right. The analysis will go on to survey the common and civil legal systems, considering some outstanding trial and jurisprudence deliberations. At the end it will be maintained that the main solution to reach a higher degree of scrutiny for patient’s refusal may be provided by the appointment of a Guardian. In the final chapter we will describe the situation involving minor Jehovah Witness, with some examples pertaining both to the common and civil law tradition and with the different declinations of the principle of life in the two legal traditions. In the appendix it will be shown that these issues have been analysed by the famous writer Ian McEwan in his recent novel ‘The Children Act’.
|
