1. Individuals should have autonomy (control) over personal information, because we need such control to maintain privacy and to guard against danger.

2. There is legitimacy not only in having personal secrets, but in sharing them, because of the value of interpersonal relationships.

3. A pledge of silence creates an obligation, because in promising one "alienates" "either a thing or some portion of one's freedom of action."

4. Professional confidentiality, and the particular pledges of silence given by professionals, have weight beyond ordinary loyalty because of the utility of such confidentiality to persons and to society.