Can disclosure to relatives provide more autonomy for the patient by discussing and promoting more choices?

Autonomy for Patients
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Institution
Autonomy for Patients
One of the most intricate problem medical practitioners are faced with is a predicament in their professional duties. Such issues may take place when physicians know that information has connotations for both the patients and the family members but their confidentiality obligation does not allow them to disclose it. Research illustrates that the duties of medical practitioners are based on two significant principles: a prevailing utilitarian code of doing no harm and a liberal point of view of patient autonomy (Ortmann et al., 2016). Nonetheless, socio-medical study shows that these standards do not completely reflect the doctor’s and patient’s opinions and are too constricted to deal with multifaceted circumstances in practice. Doctor’s legal responsibilities should thus be qualified and reconsidered when the family is troubled because it is the only way the medical practitioners will be able to recognize the various matters the family members have in genetic information that may be beneficial to the patient. Disclosure to relatives offers autonomy for the patients in that by the doctors generating genetic information for other family members; it enables the patients to act as moral agents and as caring for their other family members. The legality of doctor-patient confidentiality is very intricate, and there must be a balance between the carer’s interests and the patient’s. The health practitioners should bear in mind that not all family members have the patient’s best interest at heart and their relationship may not be a positive one, and in such cases confidentiality is paramount.

However, doctors are also permitted by law to exercise their prudence within clear considerations of the patient’s conditions and whether by not disclosing the information will cause harm to the other family member or even the patients.
ReferenceOrtmann, L. W., Barrett, D. H., Saenz, C., Bernheim, R. G., Dawson, A., Valentine, J. A., & Reis, A. (2016). Public health ethics: global cases, practice, and context. In Public Health Ethics: Cases Spanning the Globe (pp. 3-35). Springer, Cham.