Speculation fit for a king? Medical announcements from the British royal family and the recurring ethical complexities of personal privacy and public commentary from physicians

Alexander Smith; Dinesh Bhugra; Antonio Ventriglio; Michael Liebrenz

doi:10.1186/s12910-024-01105-0

Speculation fit for a king? Medical announcements from the British royal family and the recurring ethical complexities of personal privacy and public commentary from physicians

BMC Med Ethics. 2024 Oct 4;25(1):105. doi: 10.1186/s12910-024-01105-0.

Authors

Alexander Smith¹, Dinesh Bhugra^{2

3}, Antonio Ventriglio⁴, Michael Liebrenz²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Forensic Psychiatry, University of Bern, Hochschulstrasse 4, Bern, 3012, Switzerland. [email protected].
² Department of Forensic Psychiatry, University of Bern, Hochschulstrasse 4, Bern, 3012, Switzerland.
³ Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
⁴ Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy.

Abstract

This article explores the ethical complexities of openly-expressed medical commentary using recent cancer diagnoses within the British monarchy as illustrative cases. Specifically, it examines tensions between public interest, personal privacy, and professional standards, underlining the adverse implications of conjectural discourse, alongside the role of physicians in enhancing wider medical understanding.

Keywords: American Medical Association; Ethics; General Medical Council; Goldwater Rule; King Charles III; Medical Board of Australia; Medical commentary; Princess of Wales; Public education.

MeSH terms

Confidentiality* / ethics
Ethics, Medical
Famous Persons
Humans
Medicine in Literature
Neoplasms
Physician-Patient Relations / ethics
Physicians / ethics
Privacy*
Public Opinion
United Kingdom