حقوق بیماران و چالش‌های قضایی

In the legal terminology, right is a power that is given to a person by the law and for this meaning the word Solteh is used also in Feqh (Islamic Jurisprudence). Right, in this meaning, enjoys the sanction and has also been referred to as the vindicatory right, statutory rights and positive rights (Ja'afari Langeroudi, 1997, p.21). Under Article 19 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, "People of Iran, from any ethnicity and tribe enjoy equal rights and the color, race, language, etc will not cause any privilege." Also, Article 29 of the aforesaid Act states: "…want of health and medical services and medical care in the shape of insurance, etc is a universal right."The government is obliged, under laws to supply above services and financial supports to each individual in the country out of public revenues and the revenues obtained from the people's contribution." Patients' rights are among the important topics in the area of the medical law and although the Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education has approved the Charter of Patients' Rights, but the existent deficiencies in the Charter's contents and especially, failure to secure effective legal sanctions may not respond to the suffering patients' problems. Moreover, the problems caused by the breach of the patients' rights by the Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education, Medical Council and Forensic Medicine Organization as the main authorities for the health of the society and maintainers of the patients' rights will eventually appear in the judicial system and will cause also this field to encounter its own challenges. In this paper, while explaining these challenges, scientific and practical approaches have been presented to resolve the above problems.