Nowadays, in the world of markets and market economy, not only health care but medicine and medical practice in general, are looked upon more and more through the eyes of profit-making and financial interests. At the same time, there is an increasing number initiatives intended to emphasise that human medicine should be at the service of society and that this fact should have priority over any market and financial interests of individuals even in «the market oriented world». The experience of the Croatian non-governmental organization to which the authors belong and which deals with patients' rights and helps in the development of partnership relations between patients and other subjects in the health care system, can be of a wider interest. This short review is the result of eight-years experience of the Croatian Association for Patients' Rights (CAPR), and its possible effects on the health care system in the future times from the authors' points of view.

On the occasion of the 1st World Conference on Public Health Law and Ethics, the Asian Institute for Bioethics and Health Law has carried out the international survey on Population/Public Health Law Legislation to collect domestic profiles with the World Health Organization as a sponsor.

Problems of democratization in transitional countries include development in protecting the human rights. Progress in protection of patients' rights is important part of democratization. This paper describes authors' vision of the deficiencies of the articles of the very recent Patients' Rights Protection Act in Croatia, dealing with the special body named for representing patients’ rights. This paper has intention to share this experience with other legal systems and to learn more about the deficiencies on the representatives of the patients' rights.

In many countries health care policy is going through serious difficulties. On one hand there is an increase of recognized citizens and patients rights in health care systems, based upon the ethical principles and values, such as rights to respect of his or her person as a human being; the right to self determination; the right to physical and mental integrity and to the security of his or her person; the right to respect for his or her privacy; the right to have his or her moral, cultural values, religious and philosophical convictions respected, the right for such protection of health as is afforded by appropriate measures for disease prevention and health care, and to the opportunity to pursue his or her own highest attainable level of health. On the hand for the majority of mankind there is the reality of poverty, undeveloped health care systems, scare resources and lack of democracy.