Mette Hartlev – författare

'Health and human rights' is an important dimension of international and European human rights and health law. It is multi-disciplinary, engaging scholars and practitioners of public health and medicine, as well as legal scholars and human rights lawyers. Taking a 'health and human rights approach' means applying international, regional and domestic human rights law to a wide range of health-related issues.Human rights law informs other areas of law that engage with health issues, including international and domestic health law, biolaw and bioethics, patients' rights, and environmental law. It brings a new, and often more international, as well as a moral dimension to existing legal analyses of health issues. This is essential in an increasingly interconnected and globalised world, where health concerns are omnipresent and can no longer be addressed solely at a domestic level.This book focuses on the legal interfaces between 'health' and 'human rights', taking both a global as well as a European approach. Globally, there are tremendous challenges when it comes to the protection of collective and individual health. Such challenges include weak (primary) healthcare systems, the spread of infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, and the increase of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), as well as the health effects of air pollution and climate change.In such settings, human rights can, potentially, play an important role in protecting the rights of vulnerable individuals. It is a compelling framework for assessing these and other questions in the health field, as it couples health-related problems with a legal and moral dimension. The international recognition and definition of the 'right to health' is at the centre of this, but there are many other relevant human rights standards, including the right to life, the right to respect for privacy and family life, and the right to have access to information. International case law in the health field has made its mark when it comes to matters like access to health services, abortion, and inhuman and degrading treatment in health settings. Increasingly, links are being sought between human rights and other international standards protecting health, in particular the standards adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO).The European context is, to some extent, a region sui generis, not only in terms of health issues and health outcomes, but also from a political and legal perspective. The authoritative case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) of the Council of Europe has increasingly touched upon health-related issues.Health and Human Rights brings together contributions from human rights and health law experts from three different countries in Northern Europe. Together, the chapters give a rich account of the legal and interdisciplinary aspects and perspectives related to 'health and human rights'.This book is of interest to lecturers, students, practitioners and law- and policymakers and offers up-to-date analyses of crucial human rights issues in modern healthcare, practices and regulations in Europe and beyond.

This anthology aims to provide Nordic perspectives on the young and evolving field of health law – or biomedical law – by reflecting on issues that have been explored within the activities of the Nordic Network for Research in Biomedical Law. In the emergence of this fairly new legal discipline, it has become very clear that the Nordic region forms a part of Europe that has been strongly influenced by both hard and soft law initiatives from the European Union and the Council of Europe, but also that Nordic identity, culture, and collaboration clearly remain an important factor in the legal development of this particular region.The book is divided thematically into three sections. The first deals with foundational and general issues of health law, the second with patients’ rights, and the third with issues related to advancements in biomedical science.Part One includes two chapters on the relationship between health law and human rights, together with discussions on specific Nordic approaches to the organisation and regulation of health services, to constitutional protection of the right to health and to the legal discipline of health law, as such. One chapter provides an overview of the mission and tasks of the Nordic Committee on Bioethics. The section on patient’s rights deals with the development – or absence – of special legislation on the status of patients, but also with issues of coercive care and of cultural accommodation in health services, as well as the implications that assessments and decisions made in health care services may have for the patient’s right to other entitlements, e.g. sickness benefits. In the third section, on biomedical science, one author explores the concept of human dignity while another discusses the challenges facing European integration of biomedical research regulation. Specific topics, such as different approaches to biobank regulation and genetic privacy in family relations, are also addressed, and, in the final chapter, the legal status of deceased foetuses.While the volume provides Nordic perspectives on health law, the issues discussed are general. The book should therefore be of great interest not only to readers wanting a better understanding of the Nordic situation, but also to anyone with an interest in the challenging health law issues facing society in our time. The authors are members of the Nordic Network for Research in Biomedical Law.