학술논문
Patient Privacy and Conflicting Legal and Ethical Obligations in EI Salvador: Reporting of Unlawful Abortions.
Document Type
Article
Author
Source
Subject
*PATIENTS' rights
*ABORTION
*CONFIDENTIAL communications
*RIGHT of privacy
*LEGAL status of women
*GYNECOLOGISTS
*HUMAN rights
*WOMEN'S rights
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Language
ISSN
0090-0036
Abstract
Postabortion care providers who breach patient confidentiality endanger women's health and violate ethics. A 1998 abortion ban in El Salvador likely spurred an increase in the number of women investigated, because many women were reported to legal authorities by health care providers. Having analyzed safeguards of confidentiality in laws and ethical guidelines, we obtained information from legal records on women prosecuted from 1998 to 2003 and identified factors that may lead to reporting through a survey of obstetrician-gynecologists (n=1l0). Although ethical and human rights standards oblige providers to respect patients' privacy, 80% of obstetrician-gynecologists mistakenly believed reporting was required. Most respondents (86%) knew that women delay seeking care because of fear of prosecution, yet a majority (56%) participated in notification of legal authorities. (Am J Public Health. 2006:96:1927-1933. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2005.071720) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]