Signed, not Ratified
Patient Rights in France
 Rights of Users of Genetic Services
Right to Informed Consent

    As a Basic Requirement

    In case of minors and     incapacitated adults
Right to information
    Of the examined person
    Genetic Information and the     family members
Rights regarding the Medical File
Genetic Discrimination
Prenatal Diagnosis and Neonatal Screening
    Prenatal diagnosis
    Preimplantation Genetic     Diagnosis
    Neonatal Screening

 



The Decree of 4 April 2008 on the examination of genetic features of a person and the identification by genetic prints for medical purposes modified article R 1131-20 of the regulatory part of the Public Health Code.  The revised article stipulates the conditions for maintaining the documents relating to an examination of genetic characteristics of a person.  The prescribing physician has to maintain the written consent, the doubles of the prescription of an examination and the reports of the analyses of the medical biology, signed and with notes, in the medical file of the examined person, in respect of his or her professional secrecy.  The reports of the analyses of the medical biology and their explanatory comments are preserved by the laboratories during a period of 30 years.  In all cases, the filing of the results of an examination of the genetic characteristics has to be carried out under the conditions of security and confidentiality.
The patient’s right to access the medical file is guaranteed by article L 1111-7 of the Public Health Code which was created by the Act of 4 March 2002 on the rights of patients.  However, subsection 6 of article L 1131-1 states that unlike article L 1111-7 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.

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