Review article

INFORMED CONSENT AND HIV TEST SCREENING DURING PREGNANCY

Aleksandra Frković
Sanja Katalinić
Renata Dobi-Babić

Abstract

Through the process of informed consent the patient alone decides about his own health and life and the physician becomes his authorized agent. The responsibility of making the decision about one’s life is a big challenge and illness during pregnancy is an extra burden for any woman. AIDS is still an incurable, sexually and transplacentally communicable disease. Many people believe that HIV testing should be unconditionally included in usual prenatal screening tests, but others warn that pregnant women have the right to decide about that alone. FIGO Committee believes that, due to the already epidemic proportions of AIDS, the extensively conducted control of the whole population, pregnant women included, has considerably limited their individual rights. Therefore, it is necessary to estimate the importance of confidentiality and privacy against ethical responsibility to impede spreading of the disease to others. The Barcelona Declaration on the rights of mother and newborn states that HIV positive pregnant women have the right to a specifically and appropriately adapted program of help during prenatal and postnatal period. However, as all other pregnant women, HIV positive women have the right to their privacy and to confidentiality on the part of health professionals. The Chamber of Croatian Physicians and the Croatian Medical Association point out in their ethical code that every patient has the right to be well-informed and that he/she can freely accept or refuse a physician or medical help. That is why the physicians should be aware of their responsibility and of the need to talk with pregnant women telling them all about the risks of pregnancy.

Keywords

HIV; AIDS; informed consent; pregnancy

Hrčak ID:

15582

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/15582

Publication date:

1.6.2004.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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