"It is therefore necessary that information secrecy and disclosure arrangements should be in place not only to protect information but also to enable the disclosure of information in appropriately controlled circumstances".
The White House struggled to find the right balance between mandatory and voluntary reporting, between secrecy and disclosure.
"It's a very complicated debate, because you realize there are rights on both sides," said E. Wayne Carp, a professor of history at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., and the author of "Family Matters: Secrecy and Disclosure in the History of Adoption" (Harvard University Press, 1998).
The complexities of the dispute are illustrated by the fact that it has taken 10 years for the case to work its way from the initial FOI request in 2005 to final decision, with the legal decisions along the way operating like a pendulum going back and forth between secrecy and disclosure.
Some are trying to find a middle ground between secrecy and full disclosure.
They intend for this book to help prevent as much of that pain as possible and also to provide a "strong voice in the movement to discourage secrecy and promote disclosure".
While women and men may fear negative consequences of disclosure, secrecy carries its own burdens, including isolation, lack of support in the face of a potentially life threatening disease, and concerns about transmitting the infection to partners or children [ 98].
They have said the accounts concern depositors who listed Swiss addresses, and that Swiss bank-secrecy laws forbid disclosure of information concerning them.
There is a risk of selection bias, with gamete recipients preferring secrecy and non-disclosure declining study participation.
Confidentiality requirements originate from the professional secrecy and non-disclosure undertaking required of all healthcare workers – all the way back to Hippocrates 2400 years ago.
