By acting on the uninformed sister’s behalf, this writer knows that a life could potentially be saved. Knowing this, the negative implications caused by telling the uninformed sister seem small. As a medical professional, the writer feels that saving someone’s life is of the utmost importance. From Mrs. Smith’s perspective, the medical professional is breaking a confidence which has been established over a twenty year period between the nurse and the patient. Due to the breach in confidentiality, Mrs. Smith will no longer have the trust to confide with the medical professional and thus ruining the nurse-patient relationship. Consequently, this will probably end Mrs. Smith’s twenty-year relationship with the medical practice. Furthermore, by revealing the positive genetic results with the uniformed sister will create a further divide in the family and make any sort of reconciliation very difficult. The uninformed sister would more than likely harbor deeper feelings of ill will knowing her sibling was willing to keep this information from
By acting on the uninformed sister’s behalf, this writer knows that a life could potentially be saved. Knowing this, the negative implications caused by telling the uninformed sister seem small. As a medical professional, the writer feels that saving someone’s life is of the utmost importance. From Mrs. Smith’s perspective, the medical professional is breaking a confidence which has been established over a twenty year period between the nurse and the patient. Due to the breach in confidentiality, Mrs. Smith will no longer have the trust to confide with the medical professional and thus ruining the nurse-patient relationship. Consequently, this will probably end Mrs. Smith’s twenty-year relationship with the medical practice. Furthermore, by revealing the positive genetic results with the uniformed sister will create a further divide in the family and make any sort of reconciliation very difficult. The uninformed sister would more than likely harbor deeper feelings of ill will knowing her sibling was willing to keep this information from