Legal Restrictions in Healthcare (Foreign Experience of the Legal Regulation)

Introduction: in the proclaimed era of the fourth Industrial Revolution, decision-making, especially in healthcare, not based on scientific knowledge can pose a serious danger to individuals and society as a whole. Of particular importance in this context is the state approach to the legal regulation of socially significant phenomena. Thus, in recent decades, significant changes have taken place in the European Union and the United States in the field of gender identity issues, from the active introduction of medicinal and surgical methods for the treatment of gender dysphoria, including in minors, to doubts about the scientific and legal validity of the decisions taken. The purpose of the paper is to study the nature of legal restrictions in healthcare through the example of a study of ways to legally regulate the issues of gender identity, based on the assertion that gender refers to socially constructed characteristics that vary from society to society and may change over time. The research is aimed at understanding the properties, features and functions of legal restrictions in healthcare. The study of the mechanism of the legal regulation of public relations, its elements, as well as the study of public relations and legal facts as an integral part of this mechanism, has theoretical and practical significance, especially in socio-legal forecasting. Methods: in the course of the conducted research, the formal legal method, the method of comparative law analysis, and the general scientific research methods were used. Results: legal restrictions in healthcare always have a bioethical fundamental basis. The inclusion of the definition of “social well-being” in the definition of health by the World Health Organization (WHO) obliges national governments to take into account the changing social order and changes within the social structure of society when legally regulating the field of healthcare. Conclusions: the active introduction into healthcare practice of treatment methods based on anti-scientific rhetoric of populist discourses satisfying the demands of political regimes can pose a serious danger to individuals and society as a whole.