Photo: Sonny Abesamis
Prison or death. Professional secrecy as a fundamental guarantee in abortion cases.
Ana Jimena Bautista | October 30, 2017
This book raises some legal reflections on the importance of professional secrecy by health professionals in the cases of women who come to health centers looking for help after having terminated their pregnancy clandestinely, endangering their health and even their life.
These reflections arise from the tension that exists between the right to privacy of women who come to hospitals for complications resulting from incomplete or unsafe abortions, and the obligation that doctors and nurses have to report the possibility of a crime.
Is the violation of professional secrecy justified in these cases? To which dimension of the tension should priority be given, to the reporting duty of health professionals, or to women’s the right to privacy? What are the consequences within the criminal process of using information obtained by violating professional secrecy? What impacts does this have on the right to privacy? How has this tension been resolved in comparative law and in human rights protection systems? This texts aims to answer these questions.
Find the entire book here
