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Chapter 4 - Confidentiality

from Section 1 - Professional Ethics in Obstetrics and Gynecology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2019

Laurence B. McCullough
Affiliation:
Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
John H. Coverdale
Affiliation:
Baylor College of Medicine, Texas
Frank A. Chervenak
Affiliation:
Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
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Summary

This chapter provides an ethical framework for the prima facie ethical obligation of confidentiality to patients.

Confidentiality names the ethical obligation in the professional ethics of medicine of all physicians and other healthcare professionals involved in a patient’s care to maintain, as inaccessible, information about the patient by preventing access to that information by those without authorization to have access to it. Confidentiality is now understood as a prima facie ethical obligation that is both beneficence based and autonomy based. The history of the obligation of confidentiality is crucial to understanding how and why this double justification is taken for granted, because the understanding of confidentiality was different in the past.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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