Title I: Rights of patients and users of the healthcare system

The fundamental right to health protection must be implemented by all available means for the benefit of everyone. Health professionals and establishments, health insurance bodies or any other bodies or arrangements involved in prevention, care or the coordination of care, and the health authorities shall contribute, together with local authorities and their groupings, within the scope of their respective powers as laid down by law, and with users, to developing…

As part of their initial and continuing training, healthcare and medical-social professionals receive specific training on developments in knowledge about the pathologies that cause disabilities and the therapeutic, technological, pedagogical, educational and social innovations relating to them, the care and support of people with disabilities, and the announcement of disabilities.

Patients are entitled to respect for their dignity.

A health professional may not issue a certificate attesting to a person’s virginity.

No person may be discriminated against in access to prevention or care. A healthcare professional may not refuse to treat a person, including refusing to provide emergency contraception, on one of the grounds referred to in the first paragraph of article 225-1 or article 225-1-1 of the French Criminal Code, or on the grounds that the person is entitled to the complementary health protection provided for in article L. 861-1…

In Mayotte, a health professional may not refuse to treat a person for one of the reasons referred to in the first paragraph of article 225-1 or article 225-1-1 of the Penal Code. Any person who believes that he or she has been the victim of an unlawful refusal of treatment may report the facts that give rise to a presumption of the existence of such a refusal to the…

I.-Any person being cared for by a healthcare professional, an establishment or service, a professional or organisation involved in prevention or care whose conditions of practice or activities are governed by the present code, the armed forces health service, a professional in the medico-social or social sector or a social and medico-social establishment or service mentioned in I of article L. 312-1 of the code de l’action sociale et des…

Users of the healthcare system are entitled to permanent care under the conditions laid down in this code. Health establishments and other holders of the authorisation referred to in article L. 6122-1 , as well as doctors, dental surgeons, midwives and state-qualified nurses, are collectively responsible for the round-the-clock care referred to in articles L. 6111-1-3 and L. 6314-1.

Every person has the right, in the light of his state of health and the urgency of the interventions that this requires, to receive, throughout the territory, the most appropriate treatment and care and to benefit from therapies whose effectiveness is recognised and which guarantee the best possible health safety and the best possible alleviation of suffering in the light of proven medical knowledge. Prevention, investigation, treatment and care must…

The procedures referred to in Article L. 1110-5 must not be carried out or continued if they result from unreasonable obstinacy. Where they appear unnecessary or disproportionate, or where they have no effect other than the artificial maintenance of life, they may be suspended or not undertaken, in accordance with the patient’s wishes and, if the patient is incapable of expressing his or her wishes, at the end of a…