Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T09:05:33.634Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Recent Developments in Health Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Adam Chilton  and
Igor Gorlach
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the last several years, Brazil has gained international attention as an emerging BRIC economy, was awarded the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, and elected its first female president. This has led many to declare that Brazil is emerging as a potential world power for the 21st century. In addition to improving its international stature, in the last several decades Brazil has also significantly improved the availability and quality of health care within the country. Despite these gains, however, Brazil still suffers from poor maternal health. In fact, Brazil's Maternal Mortality Ratio is five to ten times higher than the rates in high-income countries. Last year, these conditions lead the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to issue a decision declaring that Brazil was violating its international obligations to provide pregnant women with adequate health care, and to call for a reduction in preventable maternal deaths. It is against this backdrop that Brazil enacted a new law last December, Provisional Measure 557 (MP 557), to require pregnant women to register with the state.

Type
JLME Column
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , Fall 2012 , pp. 696 - 703
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BRIC is an acronym used to refer to the “fast-growing developing economies” of Brazil, Russia, India, and China originally popularized by Goldman Sachs See O'Neill, J., “Why it would be wrong to write of the BRICS,” Financial Times, January 5, 2009.Google Scholar
Doctor, M., “Country Focus: Brazil,” Political Insight 2, no. 1 (2011): 7–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
See Prada, P., “For Brazil, It's Finally Tomorrow: How the Country of the Future has at Last Made It – and What Remains to be Done,” Wall Street Journal, March 29, 2010.Google Scholar
Victora, C. G. et al. , “Maternal and Child Health in Brazil: Progress and Challenges,” Lancet 377, no. 9780 (2011): 1863–1876 at 1863.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Id., at 1866.Google Scholar
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Committee), Views Communication 17/2008, U.N. Doc. CEDAW/C/49/D/17/2008 (2011) [hereinafter cited as Alyne v. Brazil].Google Scholar
Presidência da República, Casa Civil, Subchefia para Assuntos Jurídicos, “Medida Provisória,” available at <http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_Ato2011–2014/2011/Mpv/557.htm>(last visited July 14, 2012).(last+visited+July+14,+2012).>Google Scholar
MP 557, Art. 1.Google Scholar
Kane, G. Slate, , “Brazil's Insidious New Pregnancy Registration Law Violates the Privacy of Women,” available at <http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/01/06/brazilian_pm_557_how_the_pregnancy_registration_law_violates_the_privacy_of_women.html>(last visited July 14, 2012).(last visited July 14, 2012).' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Kane,+G.+Slate,+,+“Brazil's+Insidious+New+Pregnancy+Registration+Law+Violates+the+Privacy+of+Women,”+available+at+(last+visited+July+14,+2012).>Google Scholar
See Harris, M. Haines, A., “Brazil's Family Health Program: A Cost Effective Success That Higher Income Countries Could Learn From,” BMJ 341, no. 4945 (2010): 1171–1172.Google Scholar
Brazilian Constitution, Chapter 2, Section II, Article 196.Google Scholar
See Victora, et al. , supra note 4, at 1872.Google Scholar
See Macinko, J. et al. , “Major Expansion of Primary Care in Brazil Linked to Decline in Unnecessary Hospitalization,” Health Affairs 29, no. 12 (2010): 2149–2160. See also Guanais, F. C. Macinko, J., “The Health Effects of Decentralizing Primary Care in Brazil,” Health Affairs 28, no. 4 (2009) 1127–1135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
See Harris and Haines, supra note 10, at 1171.Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
Barros, F. C. et al. , “Recent Trends in Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health in Brazil: Progress Toward Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5,” American Journal of Public Health 100, no. 10 (2010): 1877–1889, at 1878.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
See Victora, , supra note 4 at 1866.Google Scholar
Maternal Mortality in 2005, Estimates Developed by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and the World Bank, available at <http://www.who.int/whosis/mme_2005.pdf>(last visited July, 15, 2012) [hereinafter cited as Maternal Mortality in 2005].(last+visited+July,+15,+2012)+[hereinafter+cited+as+Maternal+Mortality+in+2005].>Google Scholar
See Victora, , supra note 4 at 1866.Google Scholar
See Barros, et al. , supra note 16 at 1886.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
See Maternal Mortality in 2005, supra note 18.Google Scholar
Center for Reproductive Rights, Supplementary Information on Brazil, scheduled for review by the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women during its 51st Session (February 2012) (January 30, 2012), at 5 [hereinafter cited as Center for Reproductive Rights Letter].Google Scholar
See Alyne v. Brazil, supra note 6.Google Scholar
Id., at 2–8.Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
See Center for Reproductive Rights Letter, supra note 22, at 5.Google Scholar
See Alyne v. Brazil, supra note 6 at 21.Google Scholar
Id., at 21–22.Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
See Center for Reproductive Rights Letter, supra note 22, at 15–16.Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
See MP 557, Art 2, supra note 7.Google Scholar
See MP 557, Art. 10, supra note 7.Google Scholar
See Alyne v. Brazil, at 21–22.Google Scholar
See MP 557, Art. 1, supra note 7.Google Scholar
Galli, B. Reality Check, “Using Special Powers, Brazil's President Passes Law Requiring Compulsory Registration of All Pregnant women,” available at <http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/01/06/using-special-powers-brazilian-president-passes-law-requiring-registration-with-n>(last visited July 15, 2012).(last visited July 15, 2012).' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Galli,+B.+Reality+Check,+“Using+Special+Powers,+Brazil's+President+Passes+Law+Requiring+Compulsory+Registration+of+All+Pregnant+women,”+available+at+(last+visited+July+15,+2012).>Google Scholar
A Paper Bird: Sex, Rights and the World,” The State and Your Sex Life II,” available at <http://paper-bird.net/2012/01/05/the-state-and-your-sex-life-ii/>(July 15, 2012).(July+15,+2012).>Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
Id. See also Kane, , supra note 9.Google Scholar
See Center for Reproductive Rights Letter, supra note 22, at 16–19.Google Scholar
See Center for Reproductive Rights Letter, supra note 22, at 18–19.Google Scholar
Id., at 19.Google Scholar
See Kane, supra note 9. See also Garcia, K. K., O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, “Brazil's Compulsory Pregnancy Registration Violates Women's Privacy,” available at <http://www.oneillinstituteblog.org/brazils-compulsory-pregnancy-registration-violates-womens-privacy/>(last visited July 15, 2012).(last visited July 15, 2012).' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=See+Kane,+supra+note+9.+See+also+Garcia,+K.+K.,+O'Neill+Institute+for+National+and+Global+Health+Law,+“Brazil's+Compulsory+Pregnancy+Registration+Violates+Women's+Privacy,”+available+at+(last+visited+July+15,+2012).>Google Scholar
See Center for Reproductive Rights Letter, supra note 22, at 16.Google Scholar
Mariner, W. K., “Medicine And Public Health: Crossing Legal Boundaries,” Journal of Health Care Law & Policy 10, no. 1 (2007): 121–151, at 133.Google Scholar
See MP 557, Art. 10, supra note 7. See Kane, , supra note 9.Google Scholar
See Garcia, , supra note 43.Google Scholar
See Galli, , supra note 36.Google Scholar
See Kane, , supra note 9.Google Scholar
See Center for Reproductive Rights Letter, supra note 22, at 17.Google Scholar
United Nations Treaty Collection Database, “Chapter IV Human Rights,” available at <http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-8&chapter=4&lang=en#8>(July 15, 2012).(July+15,+2012).>Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted December 18, 1979, G.A. Res. 34/180, U.N. GAOR, 34th Sess., Supp. No. 46. U.N. Doc. A/34/46 (1979), 1249 U.N.T.S. 13 (entered into force September 3, 1981).Google Scholar
CEDAW Committee, General Recommendation No. 24 (Article 12: Women and Health), ¶ 31(c), U.N. Doc. A/54/38/Rev.1 (1999).Google Scholar
See Center for Reproductive Rights Letter, supra note 22 at 17.Google Scholar
See generally Simmons, B., Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2009): at 202–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar