Patients' rights have developed over recent decades in many countries, resulting in improved access to high quality medical care. The alliance between patients and physicians is a moral obligation, backed up by patient rights. Poor patient compliance with medical recommendations constitutes a public health issue, illustrating the difficulty of obliging patients to comply with treatment. The legal recognition of patients' responsibilities is defined in a few legislative and regulatory texts, but is primarily based on jurisprudence. Patients, who despite being fully aware and informed about the risks adopt a behaviour that is harmful to their health, tend to be considered as being irresponsible. This judicial approach raises a number of questions, as it fails to take into account the complexity of the human factors involved in a behaviour with either positive or negative health effects.