Latin American educational perspectives for medicine focused on the person

Abstract

In 1973, the American Hospital Association approved the Patient’s Bill of Rights within a framework for enforcing the rights of healthcare services users. This document served as a model for similar approaches in Western medicine. In Peru, in 1997, the General Health Law incorporated patients’ rights within its regulations, considering proposals issued by Peruvian physicians in the Huacachina Declaration in 1995. Since the Year 2000, these proposals were incorporated in the General Ethics Code of the Peruvian College of Physicians. Certainly, according to the 63rd Article of the most recent version (2007) of the Ethics and Deontology Code of the Peruvian College of Physicians, we must respect and look for the most appropriate ways for enforcing a complete respect for patients’ rights or to restore them in cases where they may have been violated.