PRESERVE THE TRUST AND RIGHT OF DOCTOR-PATIENT CONFIDENTIALITY

The Supreme Court Should Protect Maternity Patients From Release Of
Nonconsensual Drug Tests To Police.

Medical officials who turn over drug-test results to police as evidence for
criminal prosecution of maternity patients without their knowledge or
consent violate the sanctity of doctor-patient confidentiality.

The Supreme Court, now considering the constitutionality of disclosing
those results to a law enforcement agency, should also rule that such
breaches of confidentiality violate the Bill of Rights protection against
unwarranted searches and perhaps self-incrimination.

Ten women sued the Medical University of South Carolina, which had arranged
with Charleston police to divulge results of urine tests taken specifically
to detect cocaine use. The city's lawyer argued this week before the
Supreme Court that the objective was not law enforcement but an effort to
"help people get off cocaine" and avoid "the tragedy of these pathetic
babies coming into the world."

As noble as the professed intention may have been, such a policy not only
violates patients' right to privacy but creates a chilling deterrent to
pregnant women who, fearful of prosecution for drug use, most likely would
avoid prenatal care and medical assistance in delivery.

Legal briefs filed with the Supreme Court by dozens of medical,
public-health and civil-rights groups without exception were in support of
the women. The city of Charleston had no friend-of-the-court support.
According to The New York Times in a report Thursday, no other city has
adopted a policy similar to Charleston's, and none came forth to defend it.

Granting the city and hospital the benefit of the doubt for the stated
motives, the wiser course would be for medical personnel to share with
maternity patients any test results, if deemed medically necessary, and
guide them and their newborns to appropriate social-services agencies for
counseling and rehabilitation.

Establishing doctor-patient confidentiality was designed to engender trust
in the service of healing. That is both a policy and a right that should
not be abridged.