Mum's the Word: Confidentiality and Incest
Creator
Higgs, Roger
Baum, M.
Bass, Christopher
Whitehorn, Katharine
Campbell, Alastair
Bibliographic Citation
Journal of Medical Ethics. 1985 Jun; 11(2): 100-104.
Abstract
Higgs presents a case study in which an adolescent incest victim, interviewed by a psychiatrist after a suicide attempt, reveals her situation only after receiving assurances of complete confidentiality. Baum (a surgeon), Bass (a psychiatrist), Whitehorn (a journalist), and Campbell (a professor of divinity) comment on the case as presented and on three hypothetical complicating situations involving the girl's request for plastic surgery to please her abusive father, the possibility of pregnancy, and physical injury from sexual assault. They discuss the ethics of violating confidentiality to consult other professionals, the desirability of counseling the abuser, the girl's strong sense of responsibility toward her troubled family, the implications of her suicide attempt, and the conflict between paternalism and autonomy in treating this minor caught in an adult dilemma. (KIE abstract)
Date
1985-06Subject
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Mum's the Word: Confidentiality and Incest
Higgs, Roger (1985-06)