Abstract

CORREA MARTINEZ, César Alberto; TIRADO ALVAREZ, María Margarita; PINILLA LEON, Jenniffer  and  BAEZ MESA, Dacmar Andrea. Negative freedom as a basis for the right not to know. Prolegómenos [online]. 2023, vol.26, n.51, pp.11-25.  Epub Oct 17, 2023. ISSN 0121-182X.  https://doi.org/10.18359/prole.6470.

The 'right not to know' is a guarantee recognized to patients, which has been gaining importance within the studies of the right to information and medical care and, therefore, is not alien to law, medicine, and related disciplines. Although it arises as a call to the patient's respect for not knowing irrelevant or harmful genetic information, its application is now assumed at all levels and forms of health care, and there is a duty to allow its application in Colombia. Its importance is such that it was included as one of the elements of the patient's right to information, both by the Constitutional Court and by the Council of State (CE). However, its doctrinal development has been scarce in the country. The 'right not to know,' whose legal foundations are similar to those of the 'right to know,' is based on the conception of the autonomous action of individuals and the respect for the voluntary decisions that the legal systems guarantee to individuals, as is the case in Colombia. Continuing with the above, we also conceive as an obligation of the legal system the elimination of unjustified and unlawful obstacles that do not allow the person the possibility of deciding 'not to be informed' in the medical assistance field when it is demonstrated that he/she has the right to do so.

Keywords : right to medical information; health information; right to health; right not to know.

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