StemCell Therapy

Dr Wong Chiang Yin's exposition (The way forward for informed consent in medicine, Dec 14) mentioned the proposals of the workgroup appointed by the Ministry of Health (MOH) to review the taking of informed consent and the Singapore Medical Council disciplinary process. MOH accepted 29 proposals early this month.

I participated in the feedback sessions, during which I submitted my medical and legal viewpoints.

In the field of informed consent, Dr Wong mentioned patient autonomy and patient's interest as cardinal points in the practice of medicine. In informed consent, the patient's right to information and confidentiality may be compromised in only two situations - when the patient is mentally incapacitated, or when the patient has a communicable disease and there is the larger national interest to inform the regulatory authorities.

A third aspect to the right of informed consent has just arisen. This involves the issue of whether doctors have a legal duty to warn patients' relatives of their genetic risks.

Just last month, a legal case was heard in the Royal Courts of Justice in London. The case concerns a man who was diagnosed with an inheritable disease (Huntington's disease). He told his doctors not to reveal this to his daughter, who was then pregnant, fearing that she would terminate her pregnancy. Subsequently, when the disease was manifested in the daughter, she sued the man's doctors on the basis that, if she had known, she would not have continued with her pregnancy.

This case centres on whether doctors should have a legal duty to warn patients' relatives about disease risks from an inherited condition - essentially the balancing act between a duty to protect patient confidentiality versus a duty to warn, and thus prevent harm to relatives.

The case has now gone on appeal to the European Court of Justice and the outcome should be out by the middle of next year. However, empirical data in the UK suggests that there is public support for a legal duty to warn relatives of their genetic risk of disease.

Lim Ee Koon (Dr)

See the original post:
Forum: Should doctors have legal duty to warn a patient's relatives of genetic risks? - The Straits Times

This entry was posted on December 17, 2019 at 8:42 am and is filed under Genetic medicine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |