AMBIENTUM BIOETHICA BIOLOGIA CHEMIA DIGITALIA DRAMATICA EDUCATIO ARTIS GYMNAST. ENGINEERING EPHEMERIDES EUROPAEA GEOGRAPHIA GEOLOGIA HISTORIA HISTORIA ARTIUM INFORMATICA IURISPRUDENTIA MATHEMATICA MUSICA NEGOTIA OECONOMICA PHILOLOGIA PHILOSOPHIA PHYSICA POLITICA PSYCHOLOGIA-PAEDAGOGIA SOCIOLOGIA THEOLOGIA CATHOLICA THEOLOGIA CATHOLICA LATIN THEOLOGIA GR.-CATH. VARAD THEOLOGIA ORTHODOXA THEOLOGIA REF. TRANSYLVAN
The STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI issue article summary
The summary of the selected article appears at the bottom of the page. In order to get back to the contents of the issue this article belongs to you have to access the link from the title. In order to see all the articles of the archive which have as author/co-author one of the authors mentioned below, you have to access the link from the author's name.
Authors: JAMES MORGAN, KIRSTY MACKAY, IAN THOMAS.
DOI: 10.24193/subbbioethica.2021.spiss.84
Published Online: 2021-06-30
Published Print: 2021-06-30
pp. 128
FULL PDF
ABSTRACT: Parallel Session II, Room 8 Patient confidentiality is a central tenet of medical practice, fundamental to ensuring the maintenance of trust in medical professionals. Yet are there any circumstances where a duty of care to others overrides patient confidentiality and allows disclosure of medical information without consent from the index patient? We present the case of a patient with CADASIL (Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy) a progressive, neurodegenerative condition that is inherited in an autosomal dominant manner. Admitted to ICU with a severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), the patient ultimately had withdrawal of life sustaining therapy following discussion with family. The patient never regained capacity following admission and had never disclosed the diagnosis of CADASIL to his daughters. The question of whether to disclose the diagnosis to adult children and alert them to their potential risk of inheriting CADASIL (the knowledge of which could fundamentally affect their life choices) raises tensions around confidentiality and any duty of care to the patient’s daughters. Previously, for inheritable risks, the prevailing discourse gave prominence to patient confidentiality. However, a recent UK court case and professional guidance is challenging this notion. ICU clinicians faced the choice of disclosing the CADASIL diagnosis to the adult children, breaking patient confidentiality or remaining silent so allowing potential harm to befall them and even future generations. We examine the ethical issues this raises and suggest how clinicians, if faced with a similar situation in future, might proceed.
