Privacy Is an Important Issue for Women With Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is one of the most common form ofcancer that threatens women and needs moreattention ethically. Your valuable editorial titled“ABC of Medical Ethics and Professionalism in theBreast Clinic” was published in the recent issue.۱Because of my interest in medical ethics, and in linewith your claim, I would like to contribute the resultsof my PhD dissertation in this area. The study wasconducted in a public hospital in Iran based oncritical ethnography and included ۱۵۶ recordedclinical consultations, ۹۲۰ hours of participantobservation, and six focus groups consisting ofpatients and their families.۲ The theme that wasexplored was violation of patients’ privacy. Thistheme was about the concerns of female patients ofurology and breast cancer clinics. Their mainconcern was about being visited by male physicians.Exposure during examination, operation, andchanging dressing were their main concerns. One ofmy participants who was very upset was a ۵۲-yearoldwoman with breast cancer who had mastectomy.Despite the success of the operation, she was veryupset that her breasts had to be examined in thepresence of ۶ or ۷ male medical students at operationroom. She said this was one of the worst experiencesshe ever had. She believed that although herphysician was quite expert at his job, he did notacknowledge her privacy concerns. That seems to bea problem in medical departments of breast cancer.Other evidence also confirms that privacy is a majorissue. Mamdouh et al showed that ۷۱.۴% ofEgyptian women complained about the lack ofprivacy as a barrier to participation in breast cancer screening.۳ Also, Brown et al found that a smallpercentage (۳%) of women were dissatisfied withprivacy arrangements in screening units; however,when privacy was discussed in an ethical context, thepercentage increased significantly.