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Confidence and conflicts of duty in surgery

Confidence and conflicts of duty in surgery
Confidence and conflicts of duty in surgery
This paper offers an exploration of the right to confidentiality, considering the moral importance of private information. It is shown that the legitimate value that individuals derive from confidentiality stems from the public interest. It is re-assuring, therefore, that public interest arguments must be made to justify breaches of confidentiality. The General Medical Council's guidance gives very high importance to duties to maintain confidences, but also rightly acknowledges that, at times, there are more important duties that must be met. Nevertheless, this potential conflict of obligations may place the surgeon in difficult clinical situations, and examples of these are described, together with suggestions for resolution
0035-8843
113-117
Coggon, John
192d1511-cd81-45f4-8748-c398b74949b9
Wheeler, Robert
266f8b1b-fb63-49d5-9b93-21242761e7b7
Coggon, John
192d1511-cd81-45f4-8748-c398b74949b9
Wheeler, Robert
266f8b1b-fb63-49d5-9b93-21242761e7b7

Coggon, John and Wheeler, Robert (2010) Confidence and conflicts of duty in surgery. Annals of The Royal College of Surgeons of England, 92 (2), 113-117. (doi:10.1038/sj.bdj.2010.538). (PMID:20353640)

Record type: Article

Abstract

This paper offers an exploration of the right to confidentiality, considering the moral importance of private information. It is shown that the legitimate value that individuals derive from confidentiality stems from the public interest. It is re-assuring, therefore, that public interest arguments must be made to justify breaches of confidentiality. The General Medical Council's guidance gives very high importance to duties to maintain confidences, but also rightly acknowledges that, at times, there are more important duties that must be met. Nevertheless, this potential conflict of obligations may place the surgeon in difficult clinical situations, and examples of these are described, together with suggestions for resolution

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More information

Published date: June 2010
Organisations: Southampton Law School

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Local EPrints ID: 342897
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/342897
ISSN: 0035-8843
PURE UUID: a2a503d0-16f6-4bf8-85f8-220ae6a8a01f

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Date deposited: 19 Sep 2012 11:00
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 11:56

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Author: John Coggon
Author: Robert Wheeler

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