Legal implications of the violation of a patient

Őri, Adrienn and Ecsedy, Ida and Feith, Helga Judit (2025) Legal implications of the violation of a patient. KALEIDOSCOPE: MŰVELŐDÉS- TUDOMÁNY- ÉS ORVOSTÖRTÉNETI FOLYÓIRAT, 15 (31). pp. 473-490. ISSN 2062-2597

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Abstract

The enforcement of the patient’s right to information has become a central issue in the development of health care law in Hungary and across Europe. Neglecting information is not merely a communication failure, but a legally significant omission that inherently violates the patient’s right to self-determination, often accompanied by infringements of other patient rights, such as human dignity and the right to access medical documentation. This study explores how the historical and doctrinal development of the right to information transformed the judicial paradigm as a result of which the violation of this obligation has come to be recognized as an independent ground of liability among rights of personality. The study is based on a comparative analysis of judicial practice periods between 2008–2010 and 2018–2020, which show clear two decisive stages in the development of Hungarian medical liability law: first the period preceding the introduction of non-pecuniary damages (in Hungarian: sérelemdíj) and the subsequent, consolidated era. Our research used qualitative content and quantitative analysis to examine how breaches of the right to information interrelate with other patient rights and how judicial reasoning has evolved in this context. The findings show that Hungarian courts increasingly interpret failures in patient information as complex, multidimensional infringements, leading to infringements of self-determination, mental health, and human dignity. Although not all results were up to statistical significance, descriptive data consistently indicate higher judicial acknowledgment and stronger compensatory responses in such cases. This shift reflects Hungary’s growing alignment with European patient-rights jurisprudence, which concerns autonomy and informed consent as essential guarantees of human dignity in medical decision-making.

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