Clinical genetics and the problem with unqualified confidentiality.

In his article “A Defense of Unqualified Medical Confidentiality,” Kipnis provides a persuasive argument as to why maintaining unqualified confidentiality is the most effective way of preventing harm to third parties in the health-care setting (Kipnis 2006). However, difficulties emerge when it is applied to the field of clinical genetics. The familial context of clinical genetics means that routine sharing of information is a fundamental aspect of good clinical practice. We argue that, reflecting this premise of sharing information in clinical genetics, the most effective way to prevent harm to third parties is to advocate a “qualified confidentiality.”