PHI 2396 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Consequentialism

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHI 2396
• Professor: Andrew Sneddon

Document Summary

Confidentiality concerns patients imparting information to health professionals and physicians who implicitly or explicitly not to disclose that information or others. Physician confidentiality builds trust between the patient and the physician. Patients knowing that they can trust the physicians will tell the physician everything, all medicines or drugs they took which in turn can help treat the patient better. A consequentialist who would argue about confidentiality would say that without it, physicians would not get full information but would be hard pressed to obtain it. It could be helped in treatment of the patient. Disclosure of a patients medical information could disrupt the trust between the patient and the physician. The patient would be subjected to discrimination, shame or public ridicule. A non- consequentialist would argue that an autonomous person has rights to determine what may be done to their bodies as well as their private lives.