Are Doctors Ethical Obligation

INTRODUCTION It is well noted that when doctors have genetic information that may be helpful to the family members of their patients’, they face an ethical dilemma. Often the problem is posed as a dilemma between their duty to safeguard the privacy of their patients, and the interest they have, as physicians, to prevent disease when possible. This essay will look at the uissue beginning with the Hippocratic oath, considered to be the cornerstone of doctors’ ethical practice, and, in particular, will look at some of the liberal arguments made against disclosure, and argues thatthey do not pass the scrutiny of other liberal ideas, and that the “spirit” of liberalism” favours a duty to warn at least in an extreme circumstance. This essay does

And any liberal critique must take that into account. In this situation in particular, both actions will likely have consequences; and thus narrow interpretations of the concepts of liberty and autonomy are misleading. The conception of autonomy, in the argument in favour of not knowing, is too aspirational; for starters, it assumes happiness being something predicated by non- interference, and it should be pointed out that a preference for ignorance, with reference to genetic information, is probably in the minority and it leaves too much to chance. And though it is seemingly a liberal idea, it is questionable if that concept stands the scrutiny of the “original position”, especially if the concept is coupled with the Maximin Criterion. (Rawls, 1974) (Harsanyi, 1975). These are liberal ideas concerned with justice. In arguing for his conception of justice, Rawls stated the argument that injustice exists because decisions are made too late.(Rawls, 1974 :141); and by “late” he meant that when people know their social standing, know how powerful they are in relation to others. This is relevant because of the scenario in which a family member does not want their information to be disclosed simply because they are estranged from the family member(s) relevant. With reference to “power”, a troubling scenario

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HASDAY, L. R. 2002. The Hippocratic oath as literary text: a dialogue between law and medicine. Yale journal of health policy, law, and ethics, 2, 299. LYNCH, H. T. & DE LA CHAPELLE, A. 2003. "Hereditary colorectal cancer." N Engl J Med, 348, 919-932. POWERS, M. 2002. Privacy and genetics. [Chapter 27]. Blackwell Publishers.

5RAWLS, J. 1974. "Some Reasons for the Maximin Criterion." The American Economic Review, 64, 141-