Access to Healthcare for Minors: An Ethical Analysis of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights

Abstract

The right to non-discriminatory access to healthcare is anchored in the European Convention on Human Rights and other international treaties or guidelines. Since its ratification, the European Convention on Human Rights was made binding in all Member States of the Council of Europe and is interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Despite its legal recognition, discrimination in healthcare provision has repeatedly been an issue of medicoethical and political consideration. In this context, minors are particularly in danger of being deprived of this fundamental right. The aim of this study is to analyze the current state of the ECtHR jurisdiction on challenges in accessing healthcare for minor patients. We conducted a systematic search of judgments by the ECtHR using the keywords “healthcare” and “child”. We performed descriptive statistics and qualitative thematic analysis. Our search resulted in n = 66 judgments, which were all screened. Access to healthcare for minors played a role in n = 21 judgments, which involved applications against n = 13 countries. We formed five, partially overlapping categories, which represent recurring themes regarding the research topic. These themes are governance failure (n = 11), the status of refugee, asylum seeker or migrant (n = 5), parental home (n = 5), maternity and birth (n = 4) and others (n = 2). The normative framework of the ECtHR’s jurisprudence illustrates intersections between social, legal and medicoethical aspects of minors’ discrimination in the healthcare system. It emphasizes the particular vulnerability of children, who require exceptional protection. Inadequate access to healthcare manifests itself in specific situations, such as in the context of migration or staying in public institutions. Healthcare professionals need to be sensitized for such discrimination mechanisms, as they are often at the forefront of encountering structural discrimination in the healthcare system.