Main description:

Whether there is a public health need for the containment and response to swine flu, or an individual need to access health care across the border for a hip operation to alleviate pain, the EU has an increasingly powerful role in the field of human health. Health law and policy is deeply tied into fundamental rights, bioethics and values, with important implications for individuals. However, it is also an expansive area of economic regulation, of social and state
arrangements. The growing role of the EU in human health law and policy is contested, particularly as it has implications for the fundamental rights and values that are enshrined in national health law and policy.

This book outlines, through case studies, how the expansion of EU power is taking place through law and policy, in both public health and health care. How is law and policy in the field of human health adopted, who are the institutional actors involved, and what is the impact of these developments for fundamental rights?

Contents:

1: The Silent Revolution of EU Health Law & Policy
2: European Union Rights & Values in Human Health
3: EU 'Public Health' and 'Health Care' Law and Policy
4: Institutional Build-up of EU Health Actors
5: EU Public Health: Countermeasures to Swine Flu
6: EU Health Care: Access to Medical Care
7: The EU Constitutional Constraints on the Intrinsic Relationship of Values, Rights and Human Health