5 e) Human rights and bioethics 23. In connection with the issues addressed in this Opinion, I would like to mention that, in developing the Inter-American corpus juris on human rights – which still suffers a great deficit as far as the states signing and ratifying the American Convention, the protocols thereto and the specific agreements on human rights are concerned –, it is necessary to taken into consideration certain issues that are extremely important and highly current (or long recognized), on which there are still no regional declarations, much less binding treaties. These include the links between bioethics and human rights, which have been the subject of copious work all over the world, particularly in the context of UNESCO and the medical profession. At the European regional level, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being, signed in Oviedo (April 4, 1997) also bears noting. Such convention certainly provides broad authority to seek advisory opinions of the European Court of Human Rights. 24. It is my view that the initiatives to move ahead in the examination and issuing of a declaration and, in due time, a treaty examining and providing orientation on this subject – one that is plagued with questions and grey areas – in the Americas – or, at least, in Latin America – are feasible. The existence of a regional instrument associated to the general and special international instruments makes sense insofar as emphasis may be placed on problems that present specific features in the various countries in the area, considering the existing conditions of poverty, lack of information, insufficient technology, vulnerable groups, health services coverage, and so on. G) Statute of limitations on the criminal action 25. There is a topic of the judgment that bears noting. Such is the statute of limitations on the prosecution of a defendant for a certain action that entails criminal medical liability (strictly speaking, the statute of limitations on the criminal action). In analyzing this issue, regard must be had to the implications of the statute of limitations as far as the defendant’s defenses go and, accordingly, for the defendant’s substantive and/or procedural rights, and the reflections that the Supreme Court of Argentina has revealingly and constructively expressed in its decisions. 26. The coordination of the continental system of human rights, in the defense of human rights, should be the result of a protective trend of dialogue combining the contributions of the international and national jurisdictions. The construction of a corpus juris and its applications are the product of collective thought, which, in turn, is the expression of convictions, values, principles, and shared work. They all converge to define and consolidate the definitions of common human rights culture. Hence, an international tribunal will more than welcome the reflections of a domestic court. 27. The international Law on human rights has brought about a new approach to certain rights that are some times associated with the great dogmas of the liberal movement that introduced precious reforms into the older criminal regulations, particularly from the 18th century onwards. I am not about to argue that the statute of limitations (a guarantee releasing the perpetrator of crime from the imposition of criminal liability) is necessarily one of those “new revised rights.” The statute of