Turkish Journal of Geriatrics 2014 , Vol 17, Issue 4
GERIATRICS AND NATURAL LAW: THE MISSING LINK
Erdem Ä°lker MUTLU
Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Hukuk Fakültesi-Milletlerarası Hukuk Anabilim Dalı ANKARA Geriatric community is a vulnerable group under a high risk of losing social network, cognitive abilities and health status. Therefore, they have to be given easy access to healthcare services as a part of their socioeconomic rights. However, healthcare rights and other socioeconomic rights are not deemed strongly enforceable against public authorities in contemporary public opinion. Although many constitutions and international treaties provide socioeconomic rights for citizens, national legal systems resist not to recognize these rights and give them enforceability. This study offers the approach of natural law to be referred when the ethical side of socioeconomic rights of vulnerable groups are dismissed by lawmakers. Keywords : Geriatrics; Health Services for the Aged/Legislation & Jurisprudence; Health Services for the Aged/Ethics