ABSTRACT
Physicians ethical code of conduct more than any other formal arrangement in a healthcare setting, ensures that quality is maintained throughout the therapeutic chain, for instance, by requiring physicians to maintain confidentiality of information revealed to them by patients in their care. This chapter examines existing legal and ethical frameworks in the nation, albeit rudimentary, in light of the practice in other countries, and advocates for a Nigerian-centric system, that is, a system rooted in traditional African morality and cosmology. It proposes a kind of framework produced by subjecting the dominant legal and ethical traditions to the cultural sensibilities, attitudes and beliefs of the people whose health and lives would be affected by it. The chapter analyses the concepts of privacy and confidentiality and discusses the peculiar features of each concept and points out relevant distinctions. It examines whether physicians have an obligation to warn sexual or needle-sharing partners of patients who are HIV positive of their risk of infection.
