TY - JOUR
T1 - Confidentiality and treatment refusal
T2 - Conservative shifts on reproductive rights by Brazilian medical boards
AU - Cesario Alvim Gomes, Juliana
AU - Figueira Mendes, Corina Helena
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - Brazil has witnessed a conservative shift in recent years, reflected in setbacks in the field of reproductive rights. Commentators have drawn attention to changes in public policies and legislation that follow this shift. However, due attention has not been paid to changes in the professional standards regulating medical practice and their subsequent consequences for reproductive rights. Against this backdrop, this article examines two recent resolutions enacted by Brazilian medical boards, which violate ethical duties and the law. The first imposes a duty for doctors to disclose confidential medical information about their patients in sexual abuse cases. The second one determines that a pregnant woman's right to refuse medical treatment should be evaluated considering the fetus. This article argues that conservative setbacks operate not only through visible means, such as enacted legislation, but also furtively - through professional medical resolutions. It also asserts that, in such a context, the debate about women's bodily autonomy shifts once again from the human rights ground to the medical field, where it has traditionally been subjected to control and coercion. Finally, it points out the risk that these rules might be used to legitimize new conservative laws and public policies.
AB - Brazil has witnessed a conservative shift in recent years, reflected in setbacks in the field of reproductive rights. Commentators have drawn attention to changes in public policies and legislation that follow this shift. However, due attention has not been paid to changes in the professional standards regulating medical practice and their subsequent consequences for reproductive rights. Against this backdrop, this article examines two recent resolutions enacted by Brazilian medical boards, which violate ethical duties and the law. The first imposes a duty for doctors to disclose confidential medical information about their patients in sexual abuse cases. The second one determines that a pregnant woman's right to refuse medical treatment should be evaluated considering the fetus. This article argues that conservative setbacks operate not only through visible means, such as enacted legislation, but also furtively - through professional medical resolutions. It also asserts that, in such a context, the debate about women's bodily autonomy shifts once again from the human rights ground to the medical field, where it has traditionally been subjected to control and coercion. Finally, it points out the risk that these rules might be used to legitimize new conservative laws and public policies.
KW - Brazil
KW - confidentiality
KW - gender
KW - medical board
KW - reproductive health
KW - reproductive rights
KW - violence against women
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099589819&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/ijgo.13510
DO - 10.1002/ijgo.13510
M3 - Article
C2 - 33277708
AN - SCOPUS:85099589819
SN - 0020-7292
VL - 152
SP - 459
EP - 464
JO - International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics
JF - International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics
IS - 3
ER -