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In 2002 the patient right to be informed on his or her state of health was one of the key factors in the new legal system. The Act of 4 March 2002 on patient rights endorsed this right to information as a fundamental patient right in article L 1111-2 of the Public Health Code. This general patient right was not explicitly specified regarding the examinations of the genetic characteristics of a person by the Act of 2004. However, article L 1131-1, which specifically applies to genetics, indirectly refers to article L 1111-2 of the Public Health Code. Subsection 6 of article L 1131-1 states that, unlike the second subsection of article L 1111-2, which stipulates that any health professional may communicate this information about the state of health of a person, only the physician who prescribed the examination of the genetic characteristics is entitled to communicate the results of this examination to the person concerned or if necessary, to the confidant person, the family or, in the absence of those persons, a close relative. The prescribing physician has to inform them during an individual medical consultation (article R 1131-19).
As opposed to the general patient right to be informed on his or her state of health, the right of a patient not to be informed is specified regarding the results of a genetic test. Article R 1131-19 stipulates that the person concerned may refuse to be informed about the results of the examination of his or her genetic characteristics, without prejudice to the fourth subsection of article L 1111-2 of the Public Health Code. This subsection stipulates that the desire of a person to be kept in ignorance of a diagnosis or prognosis must be respected, unless third parties are exposed to a risk of contagion. However, according to the Counsel of Orientation of the French Agency of Biomedicine, the possible risk that a member of his or her family bears, can not be assimilated with a risk of contagion. The refusal to be informed has to be noted in the medical file.
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