The concept of previously expressed wishes was introduced to Czech law by the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, but its detailed legal regulation was enacted more than a decade later in Act on Health Services. The said regulation sets relatively strict formal criteria.
If they are fulfilled, however, the patient's will is widely protected. The paper identifies controversial questions related to the regulation of previously expressed wishes where legal uncertainty persists.
These issues should be resolved by both the doctrine and, even more importantly, the legal practice.