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International Medical Law — New Trends

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Jovica Patrnogic*
Affiliation:
Professor of International Public Law

Extract

If the subject covered by medical law must be stated, it is easy to say that it is the practice of medicine. This, the work of the doctor, should be defined by the jurist. The doctor in the first place is he who cures. It is an axiom that the purpose of medicine is to protect and preserve human life as far as possible. Confronted daily by the suffering and death of his neighbours, the doctor, nolens volens, finds himself as a privileged technician at the centre of a problem which it would be illusory to ignore.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1971

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References

1 International Law Association, Hamburg Conference, 1960; International Medical Law Commission, pp. 684–708.

2 Our translation. See note No. 1, p. 700.

* Our translation.

3 The XXIst International Conference of the Red Cross… underlines the necessity and the urgency of reaffirming and developing humanitarian rules of international law applicable in armed conflicts of all kinds, in order to strengthen the effective protection of the fundamental rights of human beings, in keeping with the Geneva Conventions… and requests the ICRC on the basis of its report to pursue actively its efforts in this regard with a view to:

1. proposing, as soon as possible, concrete rules which will supplement existing humanitarian law…

(Istanbul, September 1969)

See also Resolutions XVI and XXXI of the same Conference.

4 Our translation. “Third International Congress of 'the Neutrality of Medicine, provisional summary record and resolutions adopted; Rome 16–20 April 1968,” p. 30 (Resolution VI).

“Recognizing that, in certain fields of scientific research, experiments on man are essential for the progress of medical knowledge and human welfare;

Considering that research should not jeopardize human rights;

Aware that biomedical experiments on man have roused considerable interest and justifiable anxiety throughout the medical profession and in public opinion…” (extract from the resolution adopted by the Round Table Meeting on “Biomedical Science and Experimentation on Man”, organized by CIOMS, UNESCO Building, Paris, 7 October 1967). (Our translation.)

5 See note No. 4, p. 30.

6 Our translation. See note No. 4, p. 30.

“Heart transplants at present are a palliative and an exceptional operation whose results are as yet unpredictable. Such an operation can only be considered in institutions which have specialists actively concerned in cardiology, immunology, neurology and heart surgery, all working in close co-operation…” (extract from a resolution on “Heart Transplants” adopted by the Round Table organized by the CIOMS, Geneva, 13–14 June 1968). (Our translation.)

7 Our translation. Report submitted to the meeting of doctors (Medical Faculty), Paris, February 1970, pp. 6–7.

8 Our translation. S. de Feligonde, Les sources actuelles d'un Droit international midical, Liege 1952, p. 105.Google Scholar

9 Our translation. Presse médicale, 7 01 1950, Paris.Google Scholar

10 Médecine de France, No. XIV, 1950, p. 5.Google Scholar