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(I'm undecided on the whole thing but this argument as stated is bad)
And I'm not saying I wouldn't be willing to share. I have consented to such things before. But it should be my decision how much risk I'm willing to shoulder.
How about a comprise then? What if we made it so that you could get unrestricted medical record access for any patient for whom you are willing to to guarantee (under severe financial penalty) will not die?
This is one of those cases where when we open things up we realize that just about everyone has or does things that are stigmatized and we have no choice but to stop stigmatizing them, the secrecy and shame are self-reinforcing.
Yeah, it almost never actually works out that way, though.
But the vast majority of people are paralyzed by fear that someone might find out they have hemorrhoids.
Others live in a delusional state of paranoia where "duh gubmint" will use the info against them not realizing that any entity, governmental or otherwise, willing to do so will just ignore privacy laws anyways.
The problem isn't being embarrassed. The problem is suffering real world consequences for certain types of medical treatment, such as problems getting work, renting housing, etc.
Fix that, then? I keep hearing about all of these nightmare scenarios, dreamed up by paranoiacs.
I submit. You are right. Fix THOSE problems instead of killing people.
I'm agreeing with you. What you said happens. We must fix that.
If things are that bad, the entities inflicting these consequences don't care about medical privacy anyways, right?
Not at all. These are all things that used to be pretty common. That's why medical privacy laws were enacted.
> Fix THOSE problems instead of killing people.
That would be ideal, yes. But nobody has figured out a way to do that.
BTW, I don't think your phrasing is helpful to your cause. It implies it's a black-and-white issue when in reality it's a very complex issue with a ton of nuance.
People die as a result of the lack of medical privacy too, after all.
> the entities inflicting these consequences don't care about medical privacy anyways, right?
No, they don't. But they do care about the huge fines and other legal consequences they risk by not adhering to the law.