At the present moment, it is usually not long before a problem is framed in terms of rights-based arguments. Although it is hard to maintain that human rights is an unequivocal, universal tool, rights talk today is the trumping vocabulary of political struggle. In the first part of this Article, I will present three features that may help comprehend the variety and divergencies in human rights culture: the juxtaposition between the individual and the person at the heart of present-day constitutions; the dichotomy of privacy and dignity; the combination of civil and political rights with social and economic rights. In general terms, all these elements have come to affect the patients’ awareness, channel their expectations and, above all, contribute in various ways to change their social position and how society might visualise them.