A scandal is rocking Egypt, now that word has spread that those unsightly bandages on Anwar el-Balkimy’s face weren’t there because he got beaten by a masked gunman but, instead, because he had had (horror of horrors!) plastic surgery—a procedure which many people in the conservative Islamist party that el-Balkimy belongs to considered to be “sinful.”
But the real scandal? His lies were brought to light by the doctors who performed the procedure, physicians who were so aghast at his brazen falsehoods that they unhesitantly violated doctor-patient confidentiality.
In the United States at least, doctors are expected to protect patient confidentiality. Indeed, the ethic of respecting confidentiality goes back at least the time of Hippocrates: “Whatever, in connection with my professional services I see or hear in the life of men which ought not to be spoken of abroad,” Hippocrates wrote, “I will not divulge.”
I guess the key word from that sentence for Egyptian plastic surgeons, is “whatever.”
Why does confidentiality matter?
Because patients won’t come to physicians for the care of sensitive matters if they fear that their diagnoses and treatments will be made public without their consent.
Because good medical decision making often relies upon open, trusting communication between doctors and patients, and gossip (even when it’s true) is not a good way to build trust.
Do el-Balkimy’s lies void this moral duty? Do his falsehoods compel his doctors to speak out?
I guess if his lies maligned the doctors in question, or if they threatened public health or national security, perhaps a higher duty would prevail. But from what I have read about this case, no such higher duties existed.
El-Balkimy’s doctors should have shut the heck up.
