Women’s Rights as Patients

Each subject, as a patient, assumes the centrality of modern health systems. As a legal good, the protection of health has the dignity of a fundamental right, even if of social nature, materialized in measures of different nature, namely political and legislative. Therefore, each patient, as such, is a holder of a set of rights. Having analyzed the fundamental right to health protection, a set of patients’ rights of universal dimension were identified. The specificities of women’s rights as patients were analyzed, and it was concluded that there is a set of rights that women hold due not only to biological and reproductive particularities but also to the special social environment women live in. The possible connection between these rights and the principle of gender equality was analyzed, concluding that there is a bi-univocal relationship between both. It was also considered that the intervention of new digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, may contribute to guaranteeing the basic right of access to high-quality healthcare services, and also to gender equality.