Legal and criminal liability arising from the medical doctor's confidentiality obligation in the context of personal data

The relationship between medical doctor and patiens mostly based on trust. İn this relationship, thanks to the confidence that his personal data and secrets wil be kept safe, the patient gives factual information to the doctor and this accurate informations related to the solution of the main problem, lead to the proper progress of the treatment and ultimately patient's recovery. Doctor's obligation of confidentiality that is of service to protect the health of individuals and generally society also undertakes a duty to protect the right to life at the same time. Due to this importance, doctors are obliged to keep patients' secrets by both ethical principles and legal regulations including criminal sanctions. With the respect of this rules, doctors are responsible in the case of violation of confidentiality obligation. In this study, the reflection in criminal law of doctors' violation of confidentiality obligation is discussed. In this respect, in the case of doctors' violation of confidentiality obligation, the implementation conditions of the punishment norm penalizing the act of transferring personal data to someone else in Türkish criminal law will be examined.