Laurence Monnais, Médecine(s) et santé: Une petite histoire globale - 19e et 20e siècles (Montreal: Les Presses de l'Université de Montreal, 2016), pp. 258, €31,00, paperback, ISBN: 978-2-7606-3638-5.

latter demanding selective reporting of recalcitrant treatment defaulters. He contends that the British approach was more liberal, the state favouring self-reporting and instigating a nationwide network of confidential treatment centres, supported by the Public Health (Venereal Disease) Regulations 1916. Emergency wartime legislation is mostly omitted from consideration. Contesting Medical Confidentiality devotes considerable space to debates involving abortion. Maehle explains that, despite the different attitudes regarding medical privilege, broadly speaking, in all three countries doctors erred on the side of non-disclosure in this context, particularly when discovering a termination had already occurred. Maehle avoids trying to construct this as a particular case of exceptionalism, as has been done, for example with HIV/AIDS. In the German context, Maehle moves beyond his comparative focus to document the dramatic changes involving abortion and medical confidentiality under Nazi dictatorship. Following the ascendance of the Third Reich, laws used previously to oppose disclosure were overridden and replaced with pronatalist legislation in line with ideological goal of propagating Aryanism. It was sobering to discover that some of these measures persisted into the 1970s. The English care.data scandal is used to argue that debates over medical confidentiality have changed substantially since 1930, with health organisations and third parties taking over the role of data custodians from individual doctors. Maehle contends that management of electronic health data now presents the biggest threat to privacy, though it is unfortunate that he does not also include examples from the US or Germany in making the point. Despite some omissions, this is an ambitious and illuminating volume, its comparative focus giving a new perspective on an important topic. Those looking for a concise account of the development of modern day medical confidentiality will welcome its publication.