Last update:
06-Feb-2008

Beyond any doubt, the doctor-patient relationship should be governed by the principles of medical ethics. Briefly, those principles can be summed up by the concepts of autonomy, justice and equality, and that of beneficence, the latter also carrying the meaning of non-maleficence. In the main the application of the above values mostly depends on the doctors themselves and their integrity as well as their own personal training in matters of bioethics. Nevertheless, the ignorance and emotional stress of the patients in addition to the frequent inflexibility of the health care system usually lead to the abnegation of patients' rights. As a result, one wonders whether there exist any statutes concerning the patients' rights and if so to what extent do they protect the patients. The Greek state has defined a set of rights of the citizen as a patient, according to the provisions of Law 2071/1992, article 47 focusing -still in great vagueness- on the patient's right to consent, information, and strict confidence with respect to his/her personal beliefs. However what is the case when e.g. a patient's right to confidentiality is at odds with the common good, or the right to information conflicts with his own beneficence? In conclusion, there seems to be an urgent need for (a) teaching the basic principles of bioethics during the very first years of medical school, (b) complementary and more analytical legislation for the protection of the patients' rights, and (c) last but not least, a wide social moral awakening that results in the sensitization of the individuals themselves.

Key words: Bioethics, Doctor-patient relationship, Patient's rights.