SV / EN

Informed Consent as a Right: Regulatory Challenges in the Swedish Legal Framework

Publicerad i Förvaltningsrättslig tidskrift 2018 2, maj 2018 s. 233–268

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Recent medical controversies in Sweden have reflected several ways in which Swedish authorities have struggled to recognize informed consent as a right under international law, particularly under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). These controversies also expose significant gaps in Sweden’s legal framework, resulting from a problematic understanding of the relationship between informed consent and Sweden’s standard of care for medical interventions. They also raise the specter of criminal law, with grave implications for human rights, particularly when patients face the risk of death or serious injuries from interventions that do not, in fact, meet the standard of care. In particular, Sweden’s failure to recognize a judicial remedy for failures to obtain informed consent to medical interventions raises significant concerns as to whether Swedish law and medical practices violate the ECHR. This article, thus, examines the Swedish legal framework to determine its compliance with international law.