HUMAN RIGHTS AND BIOETHICS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: THE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL MATCH DJOKOVIC V. AUSTRALIA
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Abstract
The (in)glorious case of Novak Djokovic posed serious questions to the way societies were dealing with the pandemics, the crucial being: could the right to make informed decisions about one’s body and announce them endanger the public health through the spread of the anti-vaccination idea and not the infectious disease per se? Legal and ethical issues at stake are observed through the prism of: private life (related to the bioethical concept of individual autonomy) and public health (related to the bioethical concepts of beneficence and non-maleficence). However, the author concludes that irrelevant of the assessment of these two, if personal views about own choices are expressed publicly and, as a result, a person is refrained from enjoyment of some human rights, then the legal certainty and the freedom of thought and expression are affected too.
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