Patients and the Right to Privacy

Most recently, there was a video posted on YouTube of a delicate surgery involving a homosexual who had a six inch canister removed from his rectum. It was a scandalous event as the members of the health care team started jeering while the extraction was being done and there were others who took out their cell phones and started recording the entire procedure.

The patient is an unnamed gay 39 year old who instructed his partner to insert a canister into his rectum. His partner did this but inserted it too far that it couldn’t be removed anymore. With this problem, the homosexual immediately went to hospital to have it removed. He told the physician who was attending to him to keep it a secret for the both of them and also for the people who were to assist during the surgery. Unfortunately, the doctor wasn’t able to keep his mouth shut and the surgery became known to a lot of nurses, student nurses and also to other doctors who came and watched it done.

It is possible to observe and record surgeries for educational purposes but this can only be done if there is verbal and written consent from the patient. If he specifically states that the procedure be done in private, this should be followed. The patient has the right to privacy.

The physicians and the other members of the health care team clearly stepped beyond the boundaries of professionalism and also of the code of ethics. They were supposed to and expected to act as professionals who were to uphold the patient’s rights. Unfortunately, they did the opposite.

Legal consequences could be done and the licenses of those people involved could be revoked. Let’s just hope that none of this will happen again and that doctors and nurses will discontinue such horrendous act that is unbecoming of them.

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