Oviedo Convention impact for legislation
and practices
Cristina Gavrilovici, MD, PhDRomanian Bioethics Committee
Bratislava, 2009
What does Oviedo Convention represent for romanian legislation?
Law no 17/2001: the ratification of Oviedo Convention for the protection of Human Rights and dignity of the human being with regard to the application of biology and medicine
Chapter II - Consent
• Romanian deontology code (for physicians and nurses) (last revision 30.08.2008)
• Law 46/ 21.01.2003: Romanian patients’ rights law
• Law 487/2002: the law of mental health and protection of people with mental health
Chapter III - Private life and right to information
• Law 677/12.12.2001: the law regarding the protection of persons in relation to personal data and the free circulation of these data
• Law 584/29.10.2002: The law regarding the prevention of HIV/AIDS and protection of AIDS/HIV infected people
• The governmental decision related to compulsory introduction of biometric passports
Chapter IV - Human genome
• No romanian law focused on genetics• Additional protocol over genetic testing is
pending to promulgation
Chapter V - Scientific research
• Law no 206/ 27.05.2004: Romanian research law
• The decision regarding the authorisation of clinical trials (non-interventional)
Chapter VI - Organ and tissue removal from living donors for transplantation
purposes
• Romanian transplantation law – still pending
The merits of romanian medical legislation
• Most if not all medical laws in Romania have an important ethical part (which has been subject to debate…before the bill became a law)
The merits of Oviedo Convention
• The launch for many ethical debate and medical legislation at the european level
• It does not bring a definition of PERSON– It merely uses the terms of “human being”
• “dignity, respect, welfare, interest of the human being”
– When it comes to sensitive issues like Chapter III - Private life and right to information, it uses the term “everyone”, with no clue for what “everyone” include (embryos as well???)
The weakness of Oviedo Convention
Conclusions
• It is easier to write a law than to implement a practice
• There is a big gap between legislation and practice
Conclusions
Conclusions