3 ms·

Your #1, #2, and #3 are all the same thing, but I think it's hugely important: Medical records can show all kinds of markers about your past / current behavior

Your #1, #2, and #3 are all the same thing, but I think it's hugely important: Medical records can show all kinds of markers about your past / current behavior that let people paint pretty horrible assumptions about eachother. Type 2 Diabetes? Man you must eat poorly. Herpes? You must have gotten from being promiscuous and risky Depression? Must not be able to deal with the shit that is real life. Hormone therapy? Dental issues? Pain killers? Allergies? I mean the list is almost as long as the list of all medical issues that people. Just about every medical condition, people paint with behavioral moral/ethical judgement which is almost entirely unfair. I think medical privacy is hugely important for society as we currently are, and losing it would not change these effects, but instead increase the ease to discriminate against them.

awinter-py 9y ago
Also possible that we judge each other because medical privacy gives us a false impression of the world. Or because privacy allows people living in glass houses to throw stones. Either way -- if opening medical records leads to new treatments, it may be worth the shame.
- pavel_lishin 9y ago
  > Either way -- if opening medical records leads to new treatments, it may be worth the shame. That's incredibly easy to say if you don't have any of the problems listed.
  - awinter-py 9y ago
    I have seasonal allergies and @codemac for some reason listed allergies (maybe b/c it's a preexisting condition and that's in the news?). But point taken.
    - pavel_lishin 9y ago
      There is nothing shameful about seasonal allergies.
      - awinter-py 9y ago
        I think AIDS is the trickiest one. It's not genetic (except for the very few people who are congenitally immune). It can kill you if you don't live in a rich country. Many people who have it are gay, which is illegal in a lot of places. (Even in the US C&BP keeps messing with that canadian guy for having grindr on his phone). STDs in general can reveal you've been cheating on / lying to a partner. If you asked me 'should we publicize AIDS status in a lightly anonymized form', I say no, of course not. But if you ask me 'do we want public records about AIDS treatments', absolutely. (AIDS may be a moot point because there's recent CRISPR research about 'excising' AIDS infection in live mice). My point: I'd like to have both things but to solve problems at a continent-scale we need transparency about disease and treatment.

awinter-py 9y ago

Also possible that we judge each other because medical privacy gives us a false impression of the world. Or because privacy allows people living in glass houses to throw stones. Either way -- if opening medical records leads to new treatments, it may be worth the shame.

pavel_lishin 9y ago
> Either way -- if opening medical records leads to new treatments, it may be worth the shame. That's incredibly easy to say if you don't have any of the problems listed.
- awinter-py 9y ago
  I have seasonal allergies and @codemac for some reason listed allergies (maybe b/c it's a preexisting condition and that's in the news?). But point taken.
  - pavel_lishin 9y ago
    There is nothing shameful about seasonal allergies.
    - awinter-py 9y ago
      I think AIDS is the trickiest one. It's not genetic (except for the very few people who are congenitally immune). It can kill you if you don't live in a rich country. Many people who have it are gay, which is illegal in a lot of places. (Even in the US C&BP keeps messing with that canadian guy for having grindr on his phone). STDs in general can reveal you've been cheating on / lying to a partner. If you asked me 'should we publicize AIDS status in a lightly anonymized form', I say no, of course not. But if you ask me 'do we want public records about AIDS treatments', absolutely. (AIDS may be a moot point because there's recent CRISPR research about 'excising' AIDS infection in live mice). My point: I'd like to have both things but to solve problems at a continent-scale we need transparency about disease and treatment.