RICERCA ITALIANA     

Identity, individuals, human being and health

Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e Perfezionamento S. Anna di Pisa

Abstract

The goal of this research project is to point out the most relevant legal issues in which personal identity embodies the mean of fulfilment of right to health. The general framework is the one in which health care is not anymore just a demand of public services over the state, but primarily a fundamental right of citizens with vertical and, above all, horizontal effect.
First basilar direction of the inquiry is to ascertain limits and extent of the notion of "persona" and its legal relevance. Civil law, comparative law and legal philosophy provide for definitions and arguments in order to set the research within the legal system. Health care, on the other side, constitutes a privileged category to deepen the study of the notion of "persona" which enables researchers to reach both analytical and systemic results.

Principal Investigator

Francesco Donato BUSNELLI Scuola Sup. di Studi Univ. e Perfezionamento S.Anna di PISA

Research Objectives

The aim of the research program is to point out the complexity of legal factors which concern subjectivity, personal identity and health in their various aspects.
In this perspective the following issues shall come at stake:
i) genetic data and fundamental rights;
ii) human dignity and remedies for personal injuries;
iii) protection of personal identity and freedom of contract;
iv) freedom of choice and health care between private parties.
These issues constitute a seminal research core to complete an in-depth analysis which takes care of personal identity fulfilment in the framework of health care arguments, both public and private.
Legal tradition shows how concepts as "persona" and "Soggettività giuridica" cover a central role in the nineteenth century codification. At the beginning the power of the State whether or not to recognize legal capacity on individuals has been quite an unquestionable matter. Later on, once overcome racial discrimination and persistent debate on full legal capacity and "gradable" legal capacity, scholars have concentrated upon the rights of the unborn child, particularly on the side of recognizing to it the status of human being.
Far beyond this aspect scientific contribution has focused on the process of formation of the biological and sociological identity of the human being, by pointing out its limits and extent in light of biological, psychological, genetic and sociological >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

The protection of personal identity has been widely discussed and analysed by the legal community in recent years in all its aspects (biological identity, personality rights, genetic information and data processing).
Definitions outlined in the abstract have their own autonomy, but they have been studied also in thelight of the interaction between them. Legal, sociological and philosophical studies on the formation of personal identity deserve at this mean a greater attention.
Through seminal and in-depth studies legal tradition shows how concepts as "persona" and "Soggettività giuridica" cover a central role in the nineteenth century codification. At the beginning the power of the State whether or not to recognize legal capacity on individuals has been quite an unquestionable matter. Later on, once overcome racial discrimination and persistent debate on full legal capacity and "gradable" legal capacity, scholars have concentrated upon the rights of the unborn child, particularly on the side of recognizing it the status of human being.
Far beyond this aspect, scientific contribution has focused on the process of formation of the biological and sociological identity of the human being, by pointing out its limits and extent in the light of biological, psychological, genetic and sociological sciences.
From a legal point of view the areas of the law most relevant to this issues are those ones in which personal identity covers a major role within the >>>