Previous Politech message: "National Zoo cites animal 'privacy rights,' refuses to release info" http://www.politechbot.com/p-03490.html Sheesh. Can't this be handled by simple, straightforward contracts with your vet? Fine print: We promise not to tell anyone that Fluffy died of malnutrition... -Declan --- Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 22:25:26 -0400 From: "J.D. Abolins" <jda-irat_private> Subject: Dog Fancy magazine: privacy of pet medical records To: Declan McCullagh <declanat_private> Cc: lawat_private As I was standing at the checkout line at my local PetSmart store, I glanced at the magazine rack. The cover of the May 2002 issue of Dog Fancy magazine had this teaser: "Are your dog's medical records private?" Once I got off the floor with fits of laughter, I threw in a copy of the magazine in the shopping basket. I had to read the article, especially after the animal privacy rights thread on Politech. Although the magazine has a Web site at http://www.dogfancy.com, there is no copy of the article (page 15 in the print version) online. Here is an overview of the article "Who's looking at your dog's medical records" by George M. Dennis, J.D.. It turned out to be actually an informative article about the laws concerning disclosure of veterinary records rather than a scare story about poor Fido becoming a victim of identity theft or mass marketers. The article starts off with sound admonition for people not to assume that their dog's veterinary records have the same level of confidentiality as doctors' records for human patients. Dennis discusses the 1999 revision of the American Veterinary Medical Association's Principles of Veterinary Medical Ethics to declare vet records as private and confidential. While there is the AVMA ethics statement, few states have laws establishing veterinarian-client privilege. Some states' veterinary boards require confidentiality of records. If a state does not have the laws or veterinary board requirements, the client has no legal recourse for disclosure. But even in states that recognize some vet confidentiality, the privilege is not absolute. There are conditions under which the confidentiality may be lost. E.g.; if the client sue the vet, files a fee dispute claim, or claim that somebody injured the animal (thus, requiring pre-incident health info concerning the animal). A court order or a subpoena can require disclosure. Some states may require disclosure under certain conditions such as contagious livestock diseases. The law doesn't address who controls the privilege if the dog is switched among owners. Dennis recommends getting consent for access to vet records in writing from the previous owner when acquiring a dog. As I look at the issue, a major difference between veterinary-client privilege and physician-patient privilege is that the vet's client is the human but the patient is the animal. Privacy with vet records entails both information about the animal and some info about human client. The human would have some privacy concerns about the info concerning the human but the data usually is limited to name, address, and payment history. There may be a consumer privacy issue here. But a claim of privacy specifically for the animal is pushing into hairy territory. <no pun intended> Could that be a beginning of class action suits for neutering/spaying as an intimate form of privacy intrusion? <g> J.D. Abolins PS. In one of my emails that was posted on Politech, I mentioned a satirical page where a dog looks at privacy. This page is now up on the Web at http://www.weirdbytes.com/mdog/sec-priv.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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