|
Title
|
|
|
|
Can genetic information be disclosed to relatives?
| |
|
Author
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Abstract
|
|
|
|
| Genetic testing not only reveals information about the person tested. It can also reveal information about certain relatives. A patients genetic diagnosis can thus be of great importance to genetically at-risk relatives. For example, when a patient has Huntingtons or Cystic Fibrosis, his or her children have a 50 % chance to have inherited the disease. This can be important information to make further life choices. Or there can be a case of familial colon cancer or BRCA. When relatives are aware, they can take preventive actions like screening or preventive surgery. So what if a patient doesnt share this information with his or her family? Can or should genetic information be communicated towards family members by a physician? The shared nature of genetic information creates a conflict between established principles of medical law and ethics namely the right to autonomy and privacy of the patient, the right to information of the relatives, the duty to warn and the duty of professional secrecy. So, can a physician do something or is he or she irrevocably bound by the duty of professional secrecy? In order to find an answer to this question, I looked at how this is dealt with in Belgium, Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Overall, there seems to be a consensus that a breach of professional secrecy could be justified based on an act of necessity provided that certain conditions are met. The most important condition is that it concerns a treatable genetic condition. |
| |
|
Language
|
|
|
|
English
| |
|
Publication
|
|
|
|
2018
| |
|
Note
|
|
|
|
Presentation at the 24th World Congress on Medical Law and Bioethics, September 2-6, 2018, Tel Aviv, Israel
| |
|