The case described posits one of the continuous debates concerning the healthcare workers’ moral and legal obligation to disclose their HIV/AIDS condition with patients. On the one hand, it requires considering a patient’s health as a paramount concern, while on the other hand, it concerns the physician’s right to privacy and confidentiality. Although the grave consequences of unintentionally infecting patients with HIV provide a contrary intuition, consideration of ethical and legal factors convince that caregivers should not be obliged to disclose their HIV/AIDS diagnosis.
The first glance at the situation compels one to immediately support the idea that healthcare professionals should disclose their HIV status since the alternative scenario would pose a significant health risk to a patient. This intuition might be further supported by the existing evidence that caregivers’ concealment of their HIV status caused one patient’s death (Murphy, 1994). Moreover, the fact that HIV is a lifelong diagnosis further emboldens the intuitive stance. In addition, from a legal standpoint, such a situation might entail litigation based on “negligent medical care” and “failure to inform” (Murphy, 1994). Hence, one might argue that the physician should have informed the patient about their condition in the described scenario.
However, arguing for the opposite stance that physicians should not be obliged to disclose their HIV condition is much more credible since one needs to consider several factors. Firstly, Murphy (1994) argues that the probability of patients contracting HIV from physicians is very low; hence, the likelihood of grave consequences mentioned above is minimal. Secondly, HIV status disclosure is likely to entail substantial reputation damage, stigma, and the psychological struggle for healthcare professionals (Stutterheim et al., 2017). Finally, the physician can inform the patient about the risk of HIV infection in certain surgery, past incidents without disclosing the individual physician’s HIV diagnosis (Murphy, 1994). Hence, while the probability of HIV infection from the concealment of HIV status is minimal, the negative impact for the caregiver is much more probable and significant.
To conclude, despite the intuitiveness of the idea that caregivers should disclose their HIV status, a more discrete analysis of arguments reveals that healthcare professionals should not be obligated to do that. Moreover, a much better alternative provides sufficient information for the patient while also respecting the caregiver’s privacy and confidentiality. Thus, in the described scenario, the surgeon should continue surgeries with the patient’s consent.
References
Murphy, T. F. (1994). Ethics in an epidemic: AIDS, morality, and culture. University of California Press.
Stutterheim, S. E., Brands, R., Baas, I., Lechner, L., Kok, G., & Bos, A. E. R. (2017). HIV status disclosure in the workplace: Positive and stigmatizing experiences of health care workers living with HIV. Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, 28(6), 923–937.