Signed, not Ratified
 Patient Rights in Poland

Right to Informed Consent

Right to Information about his or her Health
Rights regarding the Medical File
Right to Privacy
Right to Complain and to Compensation
 

Rights of Users of Genetic Services

 

 



Genetic testing in Poland is mainly regulated by the legal framework that applies to health services as a whole.  Consequently, the regulations on patient rights are mutatis mutandis applicable as rights of users of genetic services.

Article 29 of Code of Medical Ethics relates to protection of genetics information. According to this article, the physician and medical staff shall grant the confidentiality of genetics data. Article 38.3 obliges the physician to give information to pregnant women about the possibility of genetics prenatal examination and give information about the possible risk connected with such a form of diagnose. The problem of human genetics is also regulated in recently added chapter IIb of the Code. According to its provisions, the genetics testing can only be use for the medical purposes. The patient shall have access to a special genetic consultation. Any intervention on the human genome has to have therapeutic or prophylactic aim. The intervention aiming at cause the hereditary changes in human genome is forbidden.

There is no specific provision prohibiting discrimination on the basis of genetic heritage.

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