The Canadian Privacy Law Blog: Developments in privacy law and writings of a Canadian privacy lawyer, containing information related to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (aka PIPEDA) and other Canadian and international laws.

Search this blog

Recent Posts

On Twitter

About this page and the author

The author of this blog, David T.S. Fraser, is a Canadian privacy lawyer who practices with the firm of McInnes Cooper. He is the author of the Physicians' Privacy Manual. He has a national and international practice advising corporations and individuals on matters related to Canadian privacy laws.

For full contact information and a brief bio, please see David's profile.

Please note that I am only able to provide legal advice to clients. I am not able to provide free legal advice. Any unsolicited information sent to David Fraser cannot be considered to be solicitor-client privileged.

David Fraser's Facebook profile

Privacy Calendar

Archives

Links

Subscribe with Bloglines

RSS Atom Feed

RSS FEED for this site

Subscribe to this Blog as a Yahoo! Group/Mailing List
Powered by groups.yahoo.com

Subscribe with Bloglines
Add to Technorati Favorites!

Blogs I Follow

Small Print

The views expressed herein are solely the author's and should not be attributed to his employer or clients. Any postings on legal issues are provided as a public service, and do not constitute solicitation or provision of legal advice. The author makes no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained herein or linked to. Nothing herein should be used as a substitute for the advice of competent counsel.

This web site is presented for informational purposes only. These materials do not constitute legal advice and do not create a solicitor-client relationship between you and David T.S. Fraser. If you are seeking specific advice related to Canadian privacy law or PIPEDA, contact the author, David T.S. Fraser.

Thursday, September 02, 2004

Article: Privacy Laws And Kids, A Delicate Balance 

WOKR-TV's website (from Rochester) has an article about the balancing act that healthcare providers have to deal with as a consequence of privacy legislation. The article focusses on HIPAA, but similar issues arise here under PIPEDA and provincial laws.

Privacy Laws And Kids, A Delicate Balance:

" Patrice Walsh (Rochester, NY) 08/24/04 - If a child gets hurt, parents are usually the first to be notified, but not always.

At age 18, young people in college are considered adults and protected under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) law. They must consent before parents are notified in case of illness or injury.

Megan Bero, 18, is accustomed to having her mother nearby when she's sick. Now the SUNY Brockport freshman is on her own for the first time, and suffering from a case of hives.

Megan was given a prescription, something her mother would not have been told unless Megan wanted her to know.

Megan said, 'If it's something serious, I think she should be told, she's my mother, she should be called.'"

Ontario's Bill 31 does a better job in dealing with substitute consent, but a lot remains up to the judgment of individual physicians and healthcare providers.

My general approach is to consider the ability of the individual child to consent (in a meaningful way) to the collection, use or disclosure of personal information. If the kid is able to make those decisions in an informed manner, the decision is theirs to make and the physician should not assume they are able to disclose any information to the parent without consent. Even if there is a general consent from the child to disclose information to the parents, particular care must be taken when you are dealing with sensitive topics, such as pregnancy, abortion and sexually transmitted diseases. The physician should always be aware of the privacy rights of the patient and consistently looking after the patient's best interests.

Complete aside: I find the infantilization of young adults to be very interesting. As a lawyer who advises a number of universities and post-secondary institutions on privacy practices, it is clear that the line between child and adult is blurring, at least from the perspective of the parent. When I went to university, it was unheard of for a parent to call a professor to ask about a kid's progress and there never would have been any thought that the university was acting in loco parentis. An eighteen year old is an adult. Period. End of sentence. Now universities are facing an onslaught of parents who act as though their kids are in high school still and assume they have a right to know whether Johnny has been skipping English 101. Nothing of substance, I just find it interesting.

Labels: ,

Links to this post:

Create a Link

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours? Creative Commons License
The Canadian Privacy Law Blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License. lawyer blogs