Of gossips, eavesdroppers, and peeping toms.

A community physician questions the tendency in British medical ethics to concentrate on confidentiality to the exclusion of privacy, an essential element in the physician patient relationship. He draws upon views from various disciplines to develop the concept of privacy and deplores the lack of redress against breaches of privacy and confidentiality in English law. A BBC-TV documentary series, Hospital, is discussed as illustrative of an unthinking acceptance of flagrant violation of privacy and human dignity.