The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine — the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, ETS No. 164 — was opened for signature at Oviedo on 4 April 1997. Done at Oviedo (Asturias), in a single copy deposited in the archives of the Council of Europe; the English and French texts are equally authentic. Depositary: the Secretary General. Adopted by the Committee of Ministers in November 1996, after the draft of the Steering Committee on Bioethics. It is not the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and not the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights, though the preamble invokes both.

Article 1: the Parties shall protect the dignity and identity of all human beings and guarantee everyone, without discrimination, respect for their integrity and other rights and fundamental freedoms with regard to the application of biology and medicine. Article 2: the interests and welfare of the human being shall prevail over the sole interest of society or science. Article 3: equitable access to health care, taking into account needs and available resources. Article 4: professional standards for any intervention, including research.

Article 5: an intervention in the health field may only be carried out after free and informed consent, with prior information as to purpose, nature, consequences and risks; consent may be withdrawn at any time. Articles 6–9: persons not able to consent, emergencies, previously expressed wishes. Article 10: private life in relation to health information, including the wish not to be informed. Clinical handbooks are not copied here.

Article 11 prohibits any form of discrimination on grounds of genetic heritage. Article 12: predictive tests only for health purposes or for scientific research linked to health purposes, with appropriate counselling. Article 13: an intervention seeking to modify the human genome may only be undertaken for preventive, diagnostic or therapeutic purposes and only if its aim is not to introduce any modification in the genome of any descendants; this is not a laboratory protocol. Article 18: where the law allows research on embryos in vitro, it shall ensure adequate protection of the embryo; the creation of human embryos for research purposes is prohibited. Article 21: the human body and its parts shall not, as such, give rise to financial gain.

Article 29: advisory opinions of the European Court of Human Rights. Article 31: later protocols (cloning, transplantation, biomedical research, genetic testing) — distinct instruments. Article 33: open for signature by member States, non-member States which participated in its elaboration, and the European Community; instruments deposited with the Secretary General; entry into force on the first day of the month following the expiration of three months after five States, including at least four members, have expressed consent — 1 December 1999. Article 36 allows particular reservations, not of a general character.

Cover: the cathedral of Oviedo; the place of the opening for signature, with no hall claimed. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine; Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (CETS No. 164).