Verified Document

Privacy And Ethics In Medical Testing Essay

Ethics Incidental findings are fairly common in the course of medical testing, occurring in around one-third of all tests (Ofri, no date). Yet, the medical field is torn about what the ethical implications of such findings are. In particular, it can be difficult to determine whether reporting such findings is important, and therefore medical practice seeks to establish a threshold of what should and should not be reported. This particular finding, that the son is not the biological son of the father, does not appear to be medically relevant. First, it is not relevant to the question at hand, which is whether the people in the family have the marker for Huntington's Disease. The child could or could not, and his parentage is not relevant to that question. Second, who is or is not his biological father is not a matter of medical health, and especially not an immediate matter. A lot of the discourse surrounding the issue is more related to things like finding genetic defects -- issues that could affect a patient at some point in his/her life. This is not one of those issues (Illes & Kirschen, 2014). The issue may actually be known to the entire family anyway.

It is important...

Moreover, if the medical team is able to communicate to patients ahead of time what the policies are with respect to incidental findings, that will put patients at ease, knowing what a medical practitioner may or may not disclose. This is where the ethics of disclosure bump up against the ethics of patient privacy. For example, if they are testing for Huntington's Disease, then the relevant question pertains to that disease, and if that is the medical question then that is the answer that Boyd is required to disclose. That Boyd has come across other information puts her in a position where she at the very least would need to discuss with the family whether they want to know other things that have been learned.
The literature that surrounds testing for Huntington's in particular talks about letting people know that they are carriers. Increased suicides are associated with people finding out that they are carriers, knowing that they will acquire this disease in the future and face its consequences (Meiser & Dunn, 2000). There is less discussion…

Sources used in this document:
References

Illes, J. & Kirschen, M. (2014). Unexpected findings. Monitor on Psychology. Vol. 45 (3) 54.

Meiser, B. & Dunn, S. (2000). Psychological impact of genetic testing for Huntington's disease: An update of the literature. Journal of Neuroology and Neurosurgery Psychiatry. Vol. 69 (2000) 574-578.

Ofri, D. (no date). Ethical implications of incidental findings. Danielle Ofri. Retrieved April 2, 2016 from http://danielleofri.com/ethical-implications-of-incidental-findings/
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Clinical Research Ethics Medical Research Is the
Words: 1646 Length: 5 Document Type: Term Paper

Clinical Research Ethics Medical research is the most sensitive field of research in the entire field of academia. It is governed by several rules, regulations, and ethical standards. For instance, no research endeavor is allowed in case it hurts the life of any human being whether directly or indirectly. Secondly, any research that is to be done must meet environmental conservation measures and should not deride or harm human dignity in

Ethics of Privacy Is a
Words: 2370 Length: 7 Document Type: Research Proposal

This information, stored on a computer and used to correlate with other data could be considered invaluable by many researchers, but the patients have a right to keep certain information private, and to suggest anything else would be an ethical violation of the patient's privacy. Because computer ethics is such a volatile issue, an entire branch of study has grown up around computer ethics, which proponents who believe the computer

Ethics and Legal Considerations of Genetic Testing
Words: 2030 Length: 7 Document Type: Term Paper

Ethics and Legal Considerations of Genetic Testing Genetic testing is ideally performed for many valid clinical purposes, including the diagnosis of existing genetic diseases, assessment of disease risks, prognoses of responses to drugs and identification of disease risks in unborn children (MedicineNet, 2002). Though valuable, genetic testing has created significant legal and ethical questions for the healthcare industry, including the Diagnostic Radiography field. Armed with advanced techniques for genetic testing, Diagnostic

Ethics Values and Decision-Making in Nursing Practice
Words: 1664 Length: 5 Document Type: Essay

Ethics, Values and Decision-Making in Nursing Practice RIGHT FROM WRONG A nurse's primary tasks are monitoring the patient's vital signs, administering medications, and helping doctors treat and perform procedures (Williams, 2012). Oftentimes and in many cases, these technical skills must be guided by certain and pertinent moral and ethical principles. This ethical and moral component of her overall responsibility is so important and critical that a code of ethics was created by

Ethics the Dowd Model of Ethical Decision
Words: 2150 Length: 8 Document Type: Essay

Ethics The Dowd Model of Ethical Decision Making in Medical Imaging: Two Dilemma Scenarios Radiologic Alcoholic An ethical dilemma is raised in a situation where two "right" courses of action are found to be mutually exclusive of each other; that is, when doing one "right" thing necessarily leads to leaving the other "right" thing undone or even contravening this "right" and doing the opposite (Towsley-Cook & Young, 2007). A scenario in which an

Ethics in Nanomedicine the Term
Words: 10726 Length: 40 Document Type: Term Paper

All these charters that have clearly defined the boundaries of what both the positive i.e. natural rights and negative i.e. The unjust exploitative rights of the people are and how no institution or research domains have the right or power to violate them (Dierkes, Hoffmann and Marz, 1996). Based on the above fact, we have to consider all the concerns related towards security of an individual as well as his

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now