A definite legal provision on patients' rights of self-determination in medical care cannot be found in Japanese law or the Japanese Constitution. Patients' rights of self-determination are recognized in the realm of learning and the judicial precedents of some lower courts in Japan nowadays. However, it is not evident whether patients' rights of self-determination found in some lower court's judgments in Japan is a right of civil and criminal law or a right of Constitution which means a human right to self-determine. Although patients' rights of self-determination have been argued in terms of medical practices, death with dignity, and so on, they have been not discussed as a constitutional right until the present day. Only whether disregard of the patients' rights of self-determination brings about civil or criminal responsibility has been questioned. Nowadays, although there are some theoretical viewpoints which regard patients' rights of self-determination as a constitutional right, or a human right, originally they are considered a right of civil and/or criminal law in doctor-patient relationships. Hence, it is doubtful that regarding patient's right as a constitutional right, or a human right without examining some theoretical problems on article 13 of the Japanese Constitution. The purpose of this study is to investigate the constitutional theoretical problems about patients' rights of self-determination, by discussing the judicial precedents of some courts related to patients' rights of self-determination.
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