In a unanimous decision on Thursday, the Cypriot Parliament has passed a new law granting the ‘right to be forgotten‘ to cancer survivors.
The ‘right to be forgotten’ means the right not to be discriminated against when a former cancer patient asks for specific credit services and life insurance after a set period of time has passed.
For those under the age of 21, the ‘right to be forgotten’ becomes applicable five years after the completion of their therapy, providing young cancer survivors with the opportunity to move forward unencumbered by their medical past. Meanwhile, for older adults, the timeline extends to ten years.
The legislative proposal was filed by Akel.
The number of cancer survivors increases by 3% every year. In the last few years, statistics on cancer survivorship in Europe have improved significantly. Overall, there are 20 million people living after a cancer diagnosis (4.2% of the total resident population, 35% of which is made of long-term survivors – having been diagnosed for 10 years or longer).
Once the cure for cancer is declared, patients should go back to their lives, like other people of similar age and socio-demographic characteristics with no cancer diagnosis. However, there are several reasons that render the return to an ordinary life challenging, the European Cancer Patient Coalition stresses.
Across Europe, having a history of cancer can be a major hurdle for access to financial credit services, particularly payment insurance products.
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