RIGHT TO PRIVACY OF YOUR MEDICAL CONDITION AND RECORDS
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RIGHT TO PRIVACY OF YOUR MEDICAL CONDITION AND RECORDS
Your right to privacy equally applies to your medical situations and records. Hence, it is wrongful for a medical doctor to disclose your ailment to a third party without your consent. It does not matter that the person disclosed to is your father, mother or closest friend.
It is unconstitutional for a nurse or any other medical personnel to disclose your medical condition to a third party or members of the public without your authority. A medical institution cannot release details of your medical treatments or examination to a third party or to the public without your express consent and permission.
Right to privacy in medical terms also connotes the right to give your consent before medical treatment is performed. Therefore, your doctor must obtain your informed consent before carrying out any medical examination, treatment or surgery on you. Informed consent here means that the doctor must tell you what he intends to do with your body and the medication he intends to administer. It also means that a surgeon must inform you and make sure you understand the nature of the surgery or procedure, the side effects, the benefits and the limitations. You must fully understand all these and give your consent before such a surgery is carried out at all.
Again, right to privacy in medical treatment indicates that nobody can treat you for an ailment if you do not wish to be so treated. Nobody can also force you to undergo a particular type of medical treatment or engage a particular doctor against your wish, so far as you are an adult or of age and of a sound mind. For instance, nobody can force you to take the traditional/herbal mode of treatment against your wish. Conversely, nobody can also force you to take an injection if you do not so wish. Please note that this may not apply to contagious diseases, e.g., leprosy, Ebola, etc., or an outbreak. Here, the appropriate authority are entitled to take certain steps to curb the spread or outbreak of a particular disease, and such a step may include confinement or treatment of the victim with or without his consent.
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