Human Dignity and Biomedicine. From the Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights

Abstract

In the field of biomedicine, the European Court of Human Rights is most often called upon to give answers to controversial situations. At the heart of these debates is frequently the concept of human dignity. Although it does not enjoy an express regulation in the system of the European Convention on Human Rights, human dignity is a guiding principle mentioned in its Preamble itself. After a brief presentation of the main areas of interaction between biomedicine and human rights, the present study focuses on the analysis of how the Court approaches the concept of human dignity in cases involving bioethical problems.