Response to Stacey

Privacy concerns the rights that a person has, such as the right against public disclosure for private facts, while confidentiality concerns the things that are meant to be kept secret (Paola et al., 2010).  Both privacy and confidentiality are critical elements in making a bioethical decision. Utmost consideration or lack of it affects autonomy and consent, as you have cited, affects adolescents’ motivation to seek sex-related care, and increases adolescent pregnancy rates. Besides, Pathak & Chou (2019) reveals that confidentiality is a right and an evidence-based component of quality care.

Denial of this right limits access to quality care, and as you have explained, it undermines patient education. The differences in state healthcare laws require keen scrutiny before making any bioethical decisions so that the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment do not violate both the law and ethical codes of practice. I think it would be prudent for care professionals to adopt a bioethical decision-making model, such as assessing an adolescent’s competency to make autonomous decisions and health risks involved. Paola et al. (2010) describes such models and explains that secondary to the law, practitioners may violate both privacy and confidentiality for the beneficence of the patient.

References

Paola, Frederick Adolf et al. Medical Ethics And Humanities. Jones And Bartlett, 2010.

Pathak, P., & Chou, A. (2019). Confidential Care for Adolescents in the U.S. Health Care System. Journals Of Patient Centered Research And Reviews, 6(1), 46-50. https://doi.org/10.17294/2330-0698.1656