ABSTRACT
Confidentiality is perhaps the most familiar of all the doctors’ ethical duties. It is a key part of the ancient Hippocratic Oath: ‘Whatever in connection with my professional practice, or not in connection with it, I see or hear in the life of men which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge as reckoning that all such be kept secret’, as well as the Declaration of Geneva (1948/1994): ‘I will respect the secrets which have been confided in me even after the patient has died’. Why is it so important?
