Medical Confidentiality after Patient Death in Selected Civil and Common Law Systems

Abstract

Abstract The paper presents problems related to medical confidentiality after the patient’s death. The reasons for the waiver of this secret need to be considered. To this end, the authors analysed Polish regulations of medical law and then compared them to selected European regulations: French and English law. The inspiration for describing these two legal orders were two media-highlighted cases of the publication of medical diaries after the deaths of people holding the highest state offices: Lord Moran and Dr. Claude Gubler. The first doctor published his memoirs concerning the state of health of the English statesman of World War II – Winston Churchill, while the second published his memoirs after the death of the French President – François Mitterrand. The authors describe the reaction of the law to these breaches of secrecy after the deaths of the patients, and confront them with the current regulations. The whole is crowned with conclusions resulting from the comparison of Polish, French and English law. The paper uses the dogmatic-legal and comparative methods.