Discuss The Arguments For And Against Withholding Relevant Medical Information

Decent Essays
Is it ever right to withhold or delay the truth from patients? That question is up for debate. Withholding medical information from patient to eliminate any potential harm to the patient‘s physical or psychological well-being is known as therapeutic privilege. I will discuss arguments for and against withholding relevant medical information, as well as my own personal view.

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Reflective Journal/ Annotated Bibliography Confidential Communication Cox, C. (2015). Understanding confidentiality in health care. Journal of Diabetes Nursing, 19(10), 378-384 4p. This article describes the dilemma that healthcare professional faced regarding patient confidentiality.…

    • 2001 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1) Describe some of the circumstances in which confidential health information can be disclosed without the patient's explicit consent Confidential health information can be disclosed under the following circumstances without the patient’s consent. Court orders and Subpoenas - when there is a court order made to have the health records available. The legal process to obtain health record information is through a subpoena. Statutory reports - Hospitals and medical personnel are required to report certain health information to public authorities.…

    • 339 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nt1330 Unit 3

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Describe the responsibility of the medical office specialist to protect all protected health information (PHI). When it comes to protecting patient information, it’s about getting employees to understand how to best protect it and what to do if there is a data breach. Training is essential and should include not only administrative employees, like medical office specialist, but also doctors, nurses, and other clinicians throughout the organization. All employees with access to patient information need to have the understanding of how to maintain security protocols when it comes to patient care. Many clinicians tend to look at PHI breaches as simply an IT issue.…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    They knew how to contact us! If Dr. Gey wasn't dead, I think I would have killed him myself” (169). We should not make someone feel like this anymore. Therefore, medical research should not be done without the patient’s informed consent even if research proves invaluable for humankind because everyone must have their rights to select what they want to do with their…

    • 1099 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    However, consent goes beyond legitimizing actions that would otherwise be unlawful. There are differing opinions on the strong reliance on informed consent. In treatment settings, is it ever possible to inform someone sufficiently on the complexities of a surgical procedure or a treatment regime so that a person fully understands the implications of their decision? Some people when faced with complex descriptions or multiple pages of information to join a clinical trial simply sign consent forms without properly reading or understanding the information. Though some may claim that it is too tedious, expensive, and time consuming to obtain consent from each person, it is pertinent that a patient be asked for consent for all uses of an individual’s healthcare information otherwise it can be classified as a breach of an individual’s privacy.…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The HeLa incident at John Hopkins Medical Institute in the 1950’s highlighted the importance of informed consent in the medical field, it provides a strong example for the ethical and legal repercussions for disobeying the process and violating a patient’s unalienable human rights, and furthermore reinforces its need. Informed consent is the undeniable prerequisite for a patient to be fully informed of a procedure and all of its aspects. This process is a necessary and pragmatic approach to maintaining a positive relationship between a physician and their patient; a necessity in ensuring human autonomy and the preservation of human rights. Informed consent was originally devised by the United Nations Committee in the Nuremberg Code to prevent future atrocities such as the Holocaust and Nazi experimentation on the Jews. The code is a set of ethics principles for researchers and physicians, it is aimed at ensuring that doctors do not take advantage of patients.…

    • 1431 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The only exception is justified when is a mater of public interest and is a need to put into the balance the benefit or the harm of disclosure; analogously the healthcare team needs to consider disclosure of information against a child expressed decision under the 'Gillick Competent' if his best interest is in conflict with his own decision. If the patient, it is incompetent their medical record can be shared with family, key carers and other healthcare professionals aiming the patient's best interest (Hope et al 2008)19. However, regardless if the patient is competent or not, it is protected by law in the event of breaches of confidentiality can expand into harmful consequences impacting on patients well being…

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Is Lying Ever Justified

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Who we are is what we lead others to believe, from the first lie we tell to the most resent one we told, we create our own invention of reality. We lie with the intention of pleasing others, but in reality our lies are self-centred. We Iie to avoid punishment or awkwardness. We lie to maintain our relationships. We lie for our own self benefit.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Also the patient should be informed and sign a consent form that allows the therapist to disclose their health information to other health care providers. In this case, I believe that it is unethical for both Dr. Knowles and Thomas to discuss their patients’ health information because they aren’t following the protocol for HIPAA. The second question can be controversial. I believe that it is not Dr. Thomas’s duty to disclose Therman’s information to her patient, Margo. This is due to the fact that Therman is not her patient nor did he agree to disclose his information to her.…

    • 1626 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Confidentiality can be described as a set of guidelines and procedures that place boundaries and restrictions on certain types of information. In medicine, the ability to keep a patient's health data private is one of the core responsibilities of a physician. In A Defense of Unqualified Medical Confidentiality, Kenneth Kipnis describes his view of patient privacy as absolute and something that must be upheld without waiver. In his essay, he disagrees with the views of the justice system and its stance in which it suggests confidentiality may be breached in order to ensure the welfare of a third party. He believes that legal and personal standards are not acceptable motivation to break the bond between patient/doctor trust.…

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Professional honesty is about the physician knowing the limits of his or her own competence and when to refer to someone else for help. There is nothing shameful about not knowing the solution to a medical problem. It is dangerous to fake competence or pretend to know things. A statement by the Medical Council, Disclosure of harm, acknowledges that all medical treatment carries risk and encourages physicians to disclose where a patient has been harmed as the result of their medical care. The Council quotes research that indicates a patient is more likely to complain if a physician fails to disclose harm to the patient, or if the disclosure is not done in an open and honest manner…

    • 118 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Therefore, it can be stated that acting without complete confidentiality, would not only be breaking the law but would also lead to negligent of the patients and damage professional standards for both a health care professional or the association they are affiliated…

    • 1013 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The legal and ethical implications of therapeutic privilege - is it ever justified to withhold treatment information from a competent patient? Clinical Ethics, 1(3), 146-151. doi:10.1258/147775006778246450 Kreeft, P. (1990). Making choices: Practical wisdom for everyday moral decisions. Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Books.…

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    Health care workers must respect patient’s confidences. Private information, especially if identifiable, should only be disclosed to the third party with the consent of the patient. The consequences of undermining this duty of confidence would be damaging to the individuals health and treatment. Protecting patient privacy and confidentiality is vital mission of health care services as it helps to increase patient’s satisfaction and sense of dignity. It helps ensure that patients get the most effective care.…

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Brilliant Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sugarcoating Truth

    • 1645 Words
    • 7 Pages

    If this is the issue, a patient’s request to withhold the truth should not be carried out because it violates the principles of beneficence and…

    • 1645 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays