Ethics Opinions

Audio or visual recording of patient care for public broadcast is one way to help educate the public. However, physicians have an obligation to protect patient interests and ensure that professional standards are upheld. Physicians also have a responsibility to ensure that information conveyed to the public is complete and accurate.

Ensuring that the public is informed promptly and accurately about medical issues is a valuable objective. However, media requests for information about patients can pose concerns about patient privacy and confidentiality, among other issues.

Human participants who contribute to research involving DNA databanks have a right to be informed about the nature and scope of the research and must give consent for how their information may be used.

Information gathered and recorded in association with the care of a patient is confidential, regardless of the form in which it is collected or stored.

When there is reason to believe that patients’ confidentiality has been compromised by a breach of the EMR, physicians have a responsibility to follow ethically appropriate procedures for disclosure. The degree to which an individual physician has an ethical responsibility to address inappropriate disclosure depends in part on his or her awareness of the breach, relationship to the patient(s) affected, administrative authority with respect to the records, and authority to act on behalf of the practice or institution.

In light of their obligation to promote the well-being of patients, physicians have an ethical obligation to take appropriate action to avert the harms caused by violence and abuse.

In the context of the media marketplace, understanding the role as a physician being distinct from a journalist, commentator, or media personality is imperative. Physicians involved in the media environment should be aware of their ethical obligations to patients, the public, and the medical profession; and that their conduct can affect their medical colleagues, other health care professionals, as well as institutions with which they are affiliated.

Donating eggs or sperm for others to use in reproduction can enable individuals who would not otherwise be able to do so to have children. However, gamete donation also raises ethical concerns about the privacy of donors and the nature of relationships among donors and children born through use of their gametes by means of assisted reproductive technologies.

Those who operate a vehicle when impaired by a medical condition pose threats to both public safety and their own well-being. In deciding whether or how to intervene when a patient’s medical condition may impair driving, physicians must balance dual responsibilities to promote the welfare and confidentiality of the individual patient and to protect public safety.

Therapeutic donor insemination using sperm from a woman’s partner or a third-party donor can enable a woman or couple who might not otherwise be able to do so to fulfill the important life choice of becoming a parent (or parents). However, the procedure also raises ethical considerations about safety for the woman and potential offspring, donor privacy, and the disposition of frozen semen, as well as the use of screening to select the sex of a resulting embryo.