Privacy beliefs and the violent family: extending the ethical argument for physician intervention
Article Abstract:
Many physicians may be reluctant to report cases of suspected domestic violence to the authorities because of beliefs in the privacy of the family. Most cases of battery or rape are perpetrated by someone the victim knows such as a family member. Women are more often the recipients of abuse from current or former male partners because of their lower power and authority. The privacy of the family traditionally is sacred in Western society. This belief means that the family is entitled to a special set of privileges that protects it from interference by non-family members. These beliefs may obscure the moral responsibility of physicians to report any cases of suspected abuse. Physicians' main responsibility should be to care for and ensure the safety of the individual patient. The principle of justice should also be incorporated into the ethical responsibilities of physicians. This principle allows physicians to take action to protect the self-respect of their patients.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1993
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Kay Redfield Jamison, PhD: from an unquiet mind to rational exuberance
Article Abstract:
Clinical psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison may have created more awareness about mood disorders than anyone else when she published a book in 1995 about her own experience with manic-depression. She is a professor at Johns Hopkins University and has also written a textbook on manic-depression, which is also called bipolar disorder.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 2003
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