Has the Right to Breach Patient Confidentiality Created A Common Law Duty to Warn Genetic Relatives?

Genetic testing and breach of patient confidentiality: law, ethics, and pragmatics.

Medical uses of genetic information have multiplied over the last several years. When an individual is a carrier of a clinically important allele, their kindred are at increased risk of carrying the same allele and of sharing the consequent risk of disease. If there were an intervention that could modify the risk of progression to disease, then there would be a clear advantage to kindred to be ...

The argument against a physician's duty to warn for genetic diseases: the conflicts created by Safer v. Estate of Pack.

A physician's duty to warn others.

The duty to warn and clinical ethics: legal and ethical aspects of confidentiality and HIV/AIDS.

Confidentiality is a principal corollary to medical treatment. It is founded on two main principles: first, there is the physician-patient relationship; only a patient who fully relies upon the physicians’ confidentiality will reveal personal and intimate details about his state of health. The second is keeping the patient’s secrets, which is essential for public confidence in the medical profe...

New Duty to Warn in Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in a case of first impression, recently addressed the duty of Pennsylvania mental health professionals to a non-patient third party.' Although the Court upheld the dismissal of the lawsuit on the pleadings prior to trial. the Court created a "duty to warn" specific, endangered third parties. The holding leaves much to be desired for mental health professionals tr...