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- The right to information about his or her health is not provided as a right independent of the right to informed consent.
Consequently the same regulation applies to this right
- The care provider shall inform the patient clearly and, if requested, in writing of the proposed examination and treatment and of developments related to the examination, the treatment and the state of health of the patient.
- The obligation to furnish information is not an absolute one but has the exception of the so-called therpaeutic exception. This means that the patient does not have to be informed when the medical professional has a well-founded suspicion of serious consequences arising from his informing the patient. Such a suspicion of serious disadvantage may not be pre-supposed too lightly, as this could result in patronizing. In the case of therapeutic exception, the medical professional may be obliged to furnish information to a person other than the person concerned. The situation may occur that the patient's interests call for this. The information may then be given to someone close to the patient. This, however, may not be done lightly, as it always concerns the violation of professional secrecy. Violating professional secrecy will, at the very least, always have to serve the patient's interests.
The care provider though, may withhold from the patient the information in question only if its provision would manifestly cause the latter serious harm. If the interest of the patient requires, the care provider must give the information to a person other than the patient. The information shall be provided to the patient when there is no longer any danger of causing the harm referred to above. The care provider shall not use the authority referred to in the first sentence without having consulted another care provider on the matter.
- If the patient has expressed a wish not to be informed, information shall not be provided, except where the interest of the patient is outweighed by the harm to himself or others which may ensue from withholding it.
The physician is bound by contract to respect the right not to know, which has a constitutional basis in the respectation of privacy. As is the case with the right of information, the right not to know is not absolute, the line being drawn where not-knowing would be hazardous to the person concerned or to others.
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