Minors Confidentiality Rights

Unit 4 Paper: Biol 498WI Confidentiality Rights of Minors The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) have policies set for patients’ confidentiality rights, but the law varies with minors. There have been cases when minors have wanted their sexual health information kept private, but may not have been aware of their rights. Often physicians struggle with whether minors have the cognitive ability and maturity for confidentiality rights in cases of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. When considering the regulation policies of minors’ confidentiality rights for sexual health services, the theories of deontology and utilitarianism help in the decision-making process.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability

A study, concerning adolescents at risk for sexually transmitted infections, suggested that many individuals avoided being tested due to confidentiality concerns. The authors suggested strategies to reduce these concerns since it has led to minors avoiding medical treatment. (Cuffe, Newton-Levinson, Gift, Leichliter 2016). Minors’ concern for confidentiality rights had a consequence with some minors choosing not to seek treatment; therefore, this could be a reason why a physician would be more considerate of a minor’s autonomy. Since these physicians made decisions based on the outcome, which still considered the patient’s autonomy, the physician used both deontological and utilitarian

Physicians with this outlook base these decisions on a utilitarian perspective, in which the outcome is the deciding factor. Physicians with a utilitarian outlook may disregard a minor’s confidentiality because they may believe it is ethically justified to disclose health information to the parents of a minor whose health is in danger. Although a doctor’s duty involves patient’s autonomy and the prolonging of a patient’s life, their duty of confidentiality may change when family or partners are involved (Gilbar 2004). This is a utilitarian approach since the physicians would be considering the lives of others and maximizing the greatest good for the greatest amount of people.

Some physicians may also consider the consequences that may occur after a minor undergoes a pregnancy or STD treatment without a partner’s or parents’ acknowledgement or support. The physician may question whether adolescents have the cognitive ability and maturity to make health related decisions on their own. Furthermore, these physicians may not grant confidential care out of concern that the minor is not emotionally or financially capable of handling the pregnancy alone (Ott 2014). This decision was based on a utilitarian stance because the outcome of the situation was valued more than the patient’s