Being undocumented is a risk factor for mental illness, and immigration status relates prominently to overall health. That’s enough to consider it protected health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy Rule.
AMA J Ethics. 2019;21(1):E32-37. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2019.32.
Dr Katherine Wu joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Erik Messamore: “Reimagining Roles of Dietary Supplements in Psychiatric Care.”
Because maintaining strict confidentiality is often untenable, or even illegal, determining the extent of protections in the postmortem context ultimately entails a weighing of the various interests at stake.
Antibiotics can be compared to other forms of “tragedy of the commons,” whereby a common good (effective treatment of infections) is jeopardized by individual consumption and lack of stewardship.
AMA J Ethics. 2024;26(5):E418-428. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2024.418.