Confidentiality and treatment refusal: Conservative shifts on reproductive rights by Brazilian medical boards

• Published in: International journal of gynecology and obstetrics Vol. 152; no. 3; pp. 459 - 464
• Main Authors: Cesario Alvim Gomes, Juliana, Figueira Mendes, Corina Helena
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.03.2021
• Subjects: Brazil; confidentiality; Confidentiality - legislation & jurisprudence; Female; gender; Humans; medical board; Politics; Pregnancy; reproductive health; reproductive rights; Reproductive Rights - legislation & jurisprudence; Treatment Refusal - legislation & jurisprudence; violence against women; Women's Rights - legislation & jurisprudence; Brazil; reproductive rights; gender; medical board; confidentiality; Brazil; violence against women; reproductive health
• ISSN: 0020-7292; 1879-3479
• DOI: 10.1002/ijgo.13510

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. Synopsis The article examines resolutions enacted by medical boards in Brazil in the light of the conservative political shift and reproductive rights setbacks in the country.