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Genetic risk: the new frontier for the duty to warn *
Author(s) -
Petrila John
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
behavioral sciences and the law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1099-0798
pISSN - 0735-3936
DOI - 10.1002/bsl.449
Subject(s) - duty to warn , duty , mental illness , context (archaeology) , mental health , duty to protect , medicine , duty of care , frontier , psychiatry , health care , suicide prevention , poison control , psychology , medical emergency , law , political science , confidentiality , paleontology , biology
Mental health professionals usually think of the “duty to warn” in the context of mental illness. However, two state appellate courts have endorsed a duty to warn when children of a patient may be at risk genetically for acquiring the disease of their parents. In these cases, the courts held that a physician's legal obligations extended beyond his or her patient to the patient's children. This article discusses these cases, as well as issues regarding implementation of such a duty and the implications for the physician–patient relationship in a health care environment that will be dominated increasingly by genetics issues. The article concludes that it is premature to apply a duty to warn to the treatment of mental illness and to concerns regarding future criminal behavior. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.