Faculty of Law

Legal Aspects of Medical Tourism Symposium Was Held

21.10.2023

"Legal Aspects of Medical Tourism Symposium" organized by the Faculty of Law, was held on Saturday, October 21, 2023, at 10 o'clock in the Ziraat Bank Library Conference Hall, open to the participation of both the university members and the public.

In the opening speech, Dean of the faculty of law, Prof. Nur Zeliha Kaman emphasized the necessity of discussing legal issues of medical tourism since Turkey has become a very popular destination in the field of medicine and health tourism and continues to progress in this field. Subsequently, the head of the Legal and Department of USHAŞ, Mr. Ali Burak Kırkbaş, made his speech welcoming the audience. The first session was then moderated by Ertunç Mega (PhD).

In her speech titled "Legal Problems Encountered by Health Tourism Companies and Solution Suggestions", Prof Ayfer Uyanık identified the tendency of intermediary institutions not to receive legal consultancy and stated that due to this situation, adequate protection cannot be provided in terms of sustainable tourism policies and preventing legal problems that may arise in the future. Subsequently, Prof Fulya İlçin Gönenç, in her speech titled "Patient Rights and Protection of Personal Health Data in Health Tourism", stated that the Personal Data Protection Law should be implemented meticulously to protect patient privacy while sharing the medical history of patients who will come to our country for treatment from healthcare institutions. The last speaker of the session was Assoc. Prof. Sevtap Metin, in her speech titled "Main Ethical Issues in Health Tourism", drew attention to the excessive growth that will be caused by the tax reduction for companies and the danger of organ trafficking and money laundering that may arise after the expansion of the sector. She emphasized the importance of fair pricing in creating an accessible health system and equal use of health services.

In the second session, which started under the moderation of Prof Gürkan Sert, Prof Özlem Yenerer Çakmut gave her speech covering reproductive rights titled "A View of Artificial Insemination Intervention as a Type of Health Tourism from the Perspective of Turkey and the Turkish Penal Code". She stated that although criminal proceedings were initiated against parents who wanted to return to the country with the child born after the surrogacy, there is no type of crime in our criminal law that can penalize this act. On the other hand, drawing attention to the legal problems that may arise in the context of lineage, she stated that the Constitutional Court's annulment of the legal provision that resulted in the mother not being able to file a lawsuit to reject lineage was an important development in the context of gender equality.

Prof Hayrunnisa Özdemir, the second speaker of the session, explained to the audience the legal structure of the contract made between the patient and the intermediary institution in her speech titled "Physician's Responsibility in Health Care". She pointed out that these contracts are consumer contracts and that the Turkish Code of Obligations has an application area.

Prof Tekin Memiş, the third speaker of the session, in his speech titled "Liability and Insurance in Health Tourism", also drew attention to the inadequacy of the maximum coverage amount in insurance policies and stated that while there are insurance policies for physicians, the lack of sufficient policies for agencies or facilities constitutes a problem.

The last speaker of the session, Prof Kaman, dean of the faculty of law, stated in his speech titled "The Responsibility of the Administration in Health Tourism" that today there is an intense tendency to receive public services from private law persons and that administrative law contracts are becoming rare. Stating that the existing criteria are insufficient in obtaining the authorization certificate, which is one of the rare areas in which the administration plays a role, Kaman concluded his speech by stating that state supervision should be increased, and that the inaction of the administration will result in responsibility.

In this symposium, which is very comprehensive about what intermediary institutions, physicians and facilities should pay attention to legally in terms of improving people's health and well-being in health tourism, which makes a great economic contribution to our country and provides foreigners with access to quality and accessible health system, ways to become effective institutions for both agencies and administration were drawn.

Following the Q&A session, which attracted great interest from lawyers as well as doctors and agencies, the symposium ended after the closing remarks of Dean Prof Kaman.