Responsibility and Rights of Patients and Doctors in Treating Transmittable Disease
Responsibility and Rights of Patients and Doctors in Treating Transmittable Disease

Summary/Abstract: Responsibility and Rights of Patients and Doctors in Treating Transmittable Disease. The results of the qualitative research in cultural comparative perspective are presented. The corpus of data consists of transcribed discussions in 16 focus groups (8 Slovak and 8 Scottish, per 5 adolescents in each) on the problem how to contain spreading HIV/AIDS and to preserve medical confidentiality simultaneously. The analysis describes (1) how the discussants reformulate the problem, (2) in what sense they take into account possible irresponsibility of the patients with HIV/AIDS and (3) how they allocate rights, responsibilities and obligations among doctors, patients, the Ministry of Health and individuals. It is revealed, that the Scots understand the responsibility of doctors as limited to their patients, while according the Slovaks, doctor is responsible to the sexual partners and family members of the infected as well as. To contain a disease, Scots propose to increase general awareness of a risk to practice unprotected sex (everybody should protect oneself), while the Slovaks suggest a variety of activities of the authorities to protect general public (e.g. to rise up against promiscuity, to prevent the further sexual contact of the infected persons). The differences are also found in the meaning of responsibility. While the Scottish discussants understand the responsibility in the terms of individual choice and rights (responsibility to oneself), the Slovak speak about responsibility in the terms of the duties toward somebody else (e. g. in relation to the sexual partners and to family members). While the individual rights is for Scots the aim of the ultimate value, the Slovaks consider obligations and rights together. Sociologia 2001 Vol. 33 (No. 3: 297-316)

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