Human Rights are many….they are recognized globally and need to be respected and afforded to every individual on this planet. Unfortunately, some people don’t know their rights for many reasons, could be because of being raised in a community where you only see and find what is afforded for people before, but you may not have an idea of how the situation is supposed to be “here comes the importance of education and awareness”, or it could be because they are in a situation where asking or seeking for your rights can be a cause of simply loosing your life “as it happens in some countries” .
despite the fact of being in the health sector, and dealing with many patients, I am not quite sure if all the patients do know their rights but some certainly do. and i feel that it is also my responsibility to maintain their rights at my place in the most possible way, as in having their condition to be confidential, to know what we are going to do in terms of assessment, treatment and to share with them their plan of care,…etc. i think those rights are the ones i can keep from my side, but from higher authority’s side it should provide a good environment for receiving treatment, easy access to health care,…etc
until recently, In Sudan, People were struggling with one of the procedures which is meant to keep people’s rights, it is basically when someone got injured in an accident ” whatever the kind of the accident” the doctors can’t start treating him/her until doing the initial procedure of getting information about the accident location, time, who brought the patient/ victim to the hospital?,…etc. a lot of information need to be taken while the patient is fighting for life
many people die in the sake of completing the procedure and doctors can’t do anything about it, as it is considered a rule that you shouldn’t break. some doctors, of course start treating patients without waiting for the procedures to finish that puts them in a long series full of investigations and courts.
Authorities think it preserves people rights by knowing what exactly happen to the victim and catching the offender, Doctors think it is a waste of time in such a critical moments that could save a life.and one of the rights of people is to get an easy access to treatment or health care but in such a way it is really difficult
Sometimes, you see the fault, but your hands are hindered, and your mouth is closed, and you feel that you are freezed from taking actions towards what you deeply know it is a “RIGHT”
International Ethics Project 
Dear Sarah
Thanks for your post. I agree that sometimes it can be difficult to draw the line between respecting rights at all costs, while also being aware of the fact that sometimes some rights are more important than others. For example, is the right to life more important that the right to informed consent? What if you can’t get consent from the patient to perform a life-saving operation (maybe they’re not conscious)? Do you need to find out who their next of kin is so that you can get their consent? Or do you go ahead and perform the procedure. We find many examples where human rights appear to be in conflict with each other. Another example is the rights of the individual vs the rights of the community. Should a patient with XDR-TB be isolated from the community and effectively get locked up? Whose rights are “more important”?
I think that in these situations the more voices we have on the topic, the more we can come to a better understanding of what to do, knowing that whatever choice we make, there will always be both good and bad outcomes. Ethics is about trying to make the best choice when the “right” choice isn’t easy to see.
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Dear Michael,
it is truly confusing sometimes as you are trying to figure out whose rights are “more important”? as you said. As we all agree that human rights are for all but we came to a point where you can’t afford them to “ALL”, and even deciding the priority can withdraw some rights from others
for the rights of individual vs. the rights of the community as in “XDR-TB”, i have no idea how this can be balanced but i think risking the life of more people by preserving the rights of some is (NOT RIGHT)
Anyway…it is just my opinion 🙂
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This is why we can have interesting conversations…because there are many ways of making choices about what is “right” 🙂
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