Prof. Mohamad S. Al Ahmad
Professor of Civil Law – University of Al Sulaymaniyah – Iraq
and Visiting Professor of Civil Law – University of Sharjah – UAE
Dr. Abdulkarim Saleh
Assistant Professor of Civil Law
University of Duhok – Iraq

Abstract:

Whenever a crisis takes place, especially when it is related to the health of individuals and depending on the severity of the health crisis, the number of patients increase, which makes the situation cumbersome for hospitals, medical clinics and healthcare providers to deal with, receiving that huge number of patients on a daily basis and providing them with the health care services they need to survive. This is why patients’ rights of being treated and cured sometimes get scrambled, so how can this chaos be dealt with?
Some European countries found a way to deal with this complicated situation, it’s safe to say that they didn’t have many other choices, which is discriminating the patients that have a better chance of survival over the others. For instance, the youth are discriminated over the elderly, and the people who suffer from no aggravating factors over the ones who are expected to die from the disease even if they receive the best health services and treatment. This poses a real problem from two different aspects, one being ethical in discriminating a life over the other, and the other being related to the rights of patients and the basis of this priority and its legitimacy. This research deals with this issue in two chapters.
The concerns of the first chapter are health crises themselves, and the way this jostling occurs among the rights of patients, while the second chapter is specific to clarifying the ethical and civil aspects of the preference of the ones with a better chance of survival as the only or the best option for dealing with the problem discussed in this research.
The research leads to the conclusion that the best chance of survival is a solution that is risky on both ethical and legal levels, that justice should be served in providing safety for the person for his/her entire life, and in building a dogma in every person that they will be subject to healthcare services no matter how much they age. It also concludes that there are better treatment ways, and building this right on the basis of the natural law that supports the fact that people are all equal in their natural rights, keeping in mind that different constitutions support this right and protect it.

Keywords: coronavirus pandemic, state of necessity, medical treatment, patient rights, death decision.

Read Full PDF Text (Arabic)