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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Wendy E. Parmet, JD, School of Law, Northeastern University, 400 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115, 617-373-2019, w.parmet@neu.edu

In the last forty years, the American legal system has recognized numerous patient rights, including the right to terminate treatment. The latter right, evident in the case of Terri Schiavo, provides individual patients, even when they are incompetent, with the right to reject medical treatment. When that right and other patient rights were first recognized in the 1960s and 1970s, it appeared that they might exist in conjunction with other, positive rights, including a right to health care in limited circumstances. However, by the mid-1970s, the Supreme Court rejected the view that the Constitution provided any general right to care and protection. In effect, the United States Constitution would not be read to incorporate the type of positive rights that are articulated in international law. Hence, individuals are left with a so-called right to die without any right to the provision of the help they may need to live a decent life. More profoundly, our legal system fails to appreciate the interdependency of risk and the social/population context in which health threats arise. Because our legal system and the language of rights are so influential in our society, this neglect spills over and influences political and legislative priorities. Thus the failure of our legal system to recognize rights to care and protection reinforces the neglect of public health and government's failure to take those steps that are necessary to protect populations from a multitude of threats, whether they be natural disasters or emerging infections such as avian influenza.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

l. Identify the legal rights of patients, particularly with respect to the termination of treatment.
• Articulate and describe the potential rights and interests that are relevant to the protection of public health but are not recognized by the U.S. legal system.
• Appreciate the relationship between the legal system’s recognition of certain patient rights and failure to recognize other rights, as well as the impact of that relationship on the protection of population health.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No